Charlotte Graham-McLay is dazzled by the new novel by JK Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith), which arrived in shops this week and went flying out the door like broomsticks. Crime writers have long specialised in grotesquely, even comically bad men, but if there’s one thing the past year has taught us, it’s that we aren’t always … Read more
“I am wary of reading any more feminist manifestos these days because they are very exhausting! Who the fuck just loves themselves all the time?”, writes Charlotte Graham-McLay, in her review of a brilliant new memoir hailed as a feminist manifesto but it isn’t, really. All I want famous women to talk about these days … Read more
As the deadline looms for the 2018 Surrey Hotel writers residency award, and entries continue to pour in from published authors and exciting nobodies, 2017 winner Charlotte Graham-McLay files a report on her experience at the Surrey. She danced a lot. During the school holidays, I used to throw tights and leotards and grubby, smelly … Read more
There was no sign of the promise she’d ‘let her guard down’, and flashes of Sarcastic Wine Mom aside, Hillary Clinton offered little more than platitudes at Spark Arena, writes Charlotte Graham-McLay. The song ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry blared from the loudspeakers, a universal indicator that we, the audience at An Evening with Hillary Clinton, were about … Read more
“Tyrants around the dinner table, fake news inside our heads”: Charlotte Graham-McLay celebrates the new novel by Auckland writer Charlotte Grimshaw. When I was a kid and nicked books from my parents’ bedroom because I’d run out of my own (the trick was to write down the page the bookmark was on, demolish the whole … Read more
Charlotte Graham-McLay talks to acclaimed Australian author Charlotte Wood – who is appearing at the New Zealand Festival this weekend – about sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and ‘angry women’. A journalist launches a national enquiry into sexual harassment and is accused of doing it “for clicks”. The Australian media decides to name the woman who … Read more
As newsrooms push for their reporters and audiences to engage with each other on digital platforms, some women journalists say gendered harassment and abuse from media consumers has become an exhausting, and accepted, part of the job. Charlotte Graham investigates. I have worked in broadcast journalism for more than a decade, including in on-air roles, … Read more
Charlotte Graham reviews the ‘horrifying’ new memoir by Roxane Gay. Content warning: this article discusses sexual assault and eating disorders, which may be distressing for sufferers and survivors. When Roxane Gay was 12 years old she rode her bike into the woods with a boy she was dating, and he and his friends took turns raping her. … Read more
The best coverage of the Auckland Writers Festival continues right here, as the Spinoff Review of Books devotes the entire week to long, intelligent encounters with guest writers. Today: Charlotte Graham talks with Susan Faludi, author of the classic 1991 book Backlash. Read more Auckland Writers Festival coverage from the Spinoff here The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Susan … Read more
The latest season of Broadchurch has been applauded for its nuanced handling of sexual violence in a way seldom seen on television. Charlotte Graham looks at what the show did right, and what it got very, very wrong. Contains spoilers for season three and frank discussion around sexual violence, please take care. I don’t watch … Read more
Everyone said The Sellout, winner of the Man Booker prize, was “satire”. Everyone except the author – and Spinoff reviewer Charlotte Graham. “This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man,” begins the 2016 Man Booker prize-winning novel The Sellout, “But I’ve never stolen anything.” The urge to giggle awkwardly at this line is acknowledged … Read more
There are some lovely lucid moments in Fiona Kidman’s latest novel, says Charlotte Graham, and it’s a reminder that “you’re reading a boss”. If only the book was longer. Dame Fiona Kidman told an interviewer recently that she thought barreling through seven decades of New Zealand history with “a story integrated” was “an interesting exercise … Read more
Harry Potter tragic obsessive fan Charlotte Graham reviews Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. [SPOILERS] everywhere. You’ve been warned. Harry Potter hasn’t slept much for 20 years and it has made him sort of a dickhead. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a delicious hot mess of time travel and popular fanfiction tropes from the … Read more