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BOOK REVIEW: The Circle of Silence (Shirley Shackleton, Pier 9)

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Last year’s film Balibo re-ignited public awareness of the six Australian journalists murdered in East Timor in 1975. Shirley Shackleton, widow of journalist Greg Shackleton, has now told her side of the story in an engaging, funny, gutsy and often heart-rending memoir. Hers is an extraordinary life: from public relations careerwoman to motherhood, and then, following the loss of her husband, nearly 35 years of activism. While The Circle of Silence is a personal memoir, it tells little of Shirley Shackleton’s private life after the first 80 pages. On page 81, Greg Shackleton dies. Or maybe that’s the point: after her husband’s death, her fight for justice was her life. It’s a moving tale of grief, anger, determination and courage, as Shackleton uses her PR nous to campaign internationally, which included some hair-raising visits to East Timor. As time passed, Shackleton’s activism extended beyond the journalists’ fate to protesting against Indonesia’s treatment of the East Timorese (the book includes grisly details of torture and rape), and trying to stir successive Australian governments to action. The Circle of Silence is a book for general readers. It should also have a long life on media, history and politics shelves.

Nicola Robinson has worked as an editor and bookseller. This review first appeared in the May/June 2010 issue of Bookseller+Publisher magazine.


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