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Wordplay: the people's voice goes low when politicians go high

On the language front, the US campaign has offered punters the weirdest word-bingo in living memory. <i>Illustration by ...

This month marks two big events in language – the first you can't avoid, the second you probably missed. Yet the occasions are cousins despite their differences. They share a messy history, both born of vox-pops, hatched in the gutter. One talks big and makes empty promises; the other cousin mumbles and pops egos with a pin.

'It was like hell let loose'

A group of German prisoners, captured by the Australians near Villers-Bretonneux.

It is the eve of Anzac Day, 1918. The Germans have taken the French town of Villers-Bretonneux, and now threaten the key British supply centre of Amiens. It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of the Great War may hang in the balance.

Tom Keneally on his new book Crimes of the Father

Tom Keneally's new book is about the child sex abuse scandal engulfing the Catholic Church.

In his new book, acclaimed Australian author Tom Keneally tackles the Catholic Church and the abuse scandal engulfing it. Here, he writes exclusively for Fairfax Media on the man behind his main character.