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4 SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2011 THE SUN-HERALD

booksextra

MARK WATSON THE BOOKS THAT CHANGED MENineteenEighty-FourGeorge Orwell

I read this when I was 14and, like a lot ofteenagers, was blownaway by it. As an Englishstudent, you’re mostlyforced to readShakespeare and novelsin which people ridehorses a lot andconduct love affairs in ballrooms. It’s thrillingto find a ‘‘classic’’ novel that feels relevant toyour own world. Ninety Eighty-Four, despiteits flaws, continues to look more propheticthan almost any other novel of the

20th century. Which is ashame for the world,probably, but gratifyingfor Orwell fans.

The ThirdPolicemanFlann O’Brien

Not many people haveread it but those who donever forget it. A wildlyinventive, surreal,stupid and fascinating journey through anightmarishly crazy world, it was probablythe book that most made me want to becomea novelist. Also, as a masterpiece that wasn’teven published until after O’Brien was dead,

it’s a good lesson toaspiring writers abouthaving faith in theirwork, even if they neversee the results.

The MagusJohn Fowles

I studied English atuniversity and,although this is avaluable experience inmany ways, it does have the effect of changingyour relationship with reading. The idea ofreading any book for pure fun, withoutpo-facedly analysing its ‘‘themes’’ or trying to‘‘contextualise’’ it, can vanish from your mind.

MotherknowsbestBook agent Selwa Anthony has built a stable ofbest-selling writers through a ‘unique businessmodel’,as one of them tells Steve Dow – ‘She runs on love.’

Popular touch .... SelwaAnthony is a great champion of best-selling fiction. Photo: Craig Peihopa

SATURDAY night in Sydney, earlyspring, high above Market Street inthe Swissotel’s Blaxland Ballroom,some of Australia’s popular-fictionwriters are seated around 20 largetables with their editors andpublishers. They venerate the tiny,dark-haired woman who steps onstage. Her message: don’t talk shop;get cosy and personal.

Star signs would be an approvedstarting point. She’s a Scorpio,daringly wrapped in a full-lengthstretch satin, ruffle collar and polka-dot trimmed dress. She thanks herdesigner, Moss and Spy, then herbeauty therapist, hairdresser, nailperson, personal trainer and hermate, the trouper Toni Lamond,before reminding her audience:“We’re here because of books. Neverforget that.”

It would not have been surprisinghad the audience responded “Yes,mother” to Selwa Anthony,daughter of Lebanese migrants andCowra drapers, one-time innovativebookseller, long-time champion ofAustralian writing and still bestieswith author Colleen McCullough,who nudged her down this road as abook agent.

Anthony’s mother could spin silkfrom worms and now she weavessuccess from her family of authors.The clan may be big and unwieldybut mother knows best. “Let’s takethat dreadful ‘literary’ word awayfrom publishing,” Anthony says.“Books are entertaining.”

As she hands out her 18th annualbatch of “Sassy” awards to herwriters – statuettes that might be

taken for a vampy Anthony holdinga book aloft – she urges Allen &Unwin, HarperCollins, ABC Booksand Hachette publishers, allpresent, to scan the room. “No onehere is boring, are they, Tara?” shesays. The former fashion model andCanadian-born crime writerTara Moss is seated up front, herpregnancy swaddled in slinky red.

“Bossy, isn’t she?” mutters a fellowback on table 20 who’s lucky to behere considering Kate Morton isalso in the back row, on table 18.Morton’s third novel, The DistantHours, was released in hardback inAustralia, the US and Britain inNovember after her first two books,The Shifting Fog and The ForgottenGarden, sold more than 3 millioncopies, her writing championed byAnthony, to whom Morton’s bestmate, author Kim Wilkins,introduced her. Anthony “has aunique business model,” explainsMorton. “She runs on love.”

Friend and children’s author MarkMacLeod says Anthony denouncedemail, then got an email address butis loath to give it out and prizes faceand telephone contact, though herwebsite gives no clue how to makethis come about: “She believes, ‘Ifyou’re really meant to work with me,you will,’ which sounds arrogant butI know what she means; ‘If you wantme, you will get to me.’ ”

The ABC newsreader JuanitaPhillips accepts her Sassy withhusband Mario Milostic andconfesses Anthony swung them abook deal when they had no morethan a title and an idea. “Selwa’s the

kind of agent you want on yourside,” says TV scriptwriter andDomain columnist for The SydneyMorning Herald, Jimmy Thomson.“She’s created her own corner ofAustralian publishing, which isactually more relevant to the

majority of book readers inAustralia than all the literary wankfests put together.”

The prized “pink” Sassy isawarded to Moss, who declares onstage that Anthony is “like family tome” and reminds her of her latest

character Great Aunt Celia,“supernaturally young, neverages, dresses elegantly . . . givesgreat advice”.

Back at her table, Moss explains:“She’s very direct and straight-forward. I respect that. I’m a very