‘My work is often misunderstood’: Shaun Tan on his surreal Tales from Outer Suburbia

One minute you're writing a book at your desk in Adelaide, the next it's in The New York Times. The Butterfly Thief is out now in the USA 🇺🇸 scribepublications.com/books/the-butterfly-thief nytimes.com/2025/11/19/books/review/the-butterfly-theif-walter-marsh.html

Hugely enjoyed @waltermarsh.bsky.social’s “The Butterfly Thief” - both a gobsmacking story of entomological skullduggery and a sobering reflection on museums’ role in the extractive work of empire.

‘They’re not wolves – they’re sheep’: the psychiatrist who spent decades meeting and studying lone-actor mass killers www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

@waltermarsh.bsky.social true crime caper 'The Butterfly Thief' pieces together several mid-century museum thefts that shook Australia’s leading natural history institutions... My review is available at Foreword Reviews: shorturl.at/SHhnh.

UK PUBLICATION DAY 🇬🇧 A year ago I went to London to visit some grand, old, complicated museums, and track down some big pieces of the puzzle that become my second book #TheButterflyThief 🦋 A year later, pretty much to the day, it’s out now: scribepublications.co.uk/books/the-butterfly-thief

📚 REVIEW: In his rollicking scientific true-crime, The Butterfly Thief, Walter Marsh delves into the dark side of museum collection histories – and one bizarre heist. 👉 theconversation.com/theft-l...

“This is a horrible time to be a museum.” Once well-funded and well-guarded, museums and galleries all over the world are faring worse than the fancy-brand jewellery shops that have no role fostering national heritage and contemporary culture. A wake-up call. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Free lesson in museum theft management courtesy of my new book The Butterfly Thief (spoiler: they still got robbed)

Sorry but this is the funniest headline I will read all year

Tarnanthi turns 10: how a small South Australian festival became a super-sized champion of First Nations art

A group of bronze sculptures behind glass at the South Australian Museum reveals a complex story of British imperialism, a South Australian governor, and the hidden slavery connections of an Adelaide Hills dynasty. Another extract from my new book: www.indailysa.com.au/news/in-dept...

In 1947, 800 butterfly specimens were quietly stolen from Australian museums by a British socialite. Walter Marsh’s ‘The Butterfly Thief’ uncovers a story of obsession, betrayal and friendship in a story it’s surprising isn’t better known. satpa.pe/9ATiKCF

The great butterfly heist: how a gentleman collector stole thousands of butterflies from Australian museums

Trent Dalton, Bri Lee and Melissa Leong’s ‘raw’ memoir: the best Australian books out in October

The fluke that exposed Australia’s greatest museum heist — extract from my new book in this weekend’s Fin Review: www.afr.com/life-and-lux...

My second book, The Butterfly Thief, is out today — cracking open the complicated world of natural history museums, and the gentleman collector who left them scrambling 🦋 Net it in the wild at your local bookshop or order online: scribepublications.com.au/books/the-bu...

"The real goal of arts policy shouldn’t be to keep organisations solvent; it needs to keep each artform alive for the next generation. Artistic talent doesn’t spontaneously come to fruition [...] [it] is passed down from the generation before." theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Sydney book launch, Tues September 30 @ Gleebooks, in conversation with Helen Sullivan 🦋🍷 Tickos: gleebooks.com.au/event/walter...

Ta-Nehasi Coates is doing a lot of things with this essay, but one of the most important is fearlessly using examples of anti-trans hate to describe Charlie Kirk's politics. The contrast between his choices and those of other writers for major legacy outlets is revealing.

Reflecting on the history of @meanjin.bsky.social — back in 1949 our teenage comrade Rupert Murdoch published his own lit mag and credited Meanjin (and its founder/his Geelong Grammar teacher Clem Christensen) for making it possible. It was the first thing he ever published.

Here's me in Guardian Australia on the total debacle with Meanjin. www.theguardian.com/books/commen...

Current MUP chair Warren Bebbinton was also Vice Chancellor at the University of Adelaide when it cut off support for Australia’s first and oldest community radio station in 2015 (Radio Adelaide was gutted and barely limps on today).

“Maybe that’s what literature can do – it helps us understand, and maybe even forgive.” Great profile of Hossein Asgari, whose debut novel was passed on by a dozen publishers, then got shortlisted for the Miles Franklin. His follow up, Desolation, is out now: www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/boo...

FWIW everyone knows how bad it is but if state and federal governments go out there saying it's a catastrophic disaster, the state will suffer economically when it still needs people to visit. SA is not a rich place and is taking a hit. We will see more of these tensions in the future, I'm sure.

An aside: journalism exists in an attention economy where demand drives editorial decision making. If you find something you enjoyed, learned from and that moved you, share and share widely -- even four days late. I, and others, don't get to keep doing this stuff if no one reads it.

I started out as a local music journalist and although the free market has thoroughly disabused me of that dream I’ve indulged in a little bit of music writing at supporter-driven InReview lately, and very much enjoyed it. www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/mus...

Another book week passes and it seems not a single parent has dressed their child up as a young Rupert Murdoch. Disappointing!

Contemplating life.

At QLD senate estimates last week it was revealed Arts Queensland overturned a long-held plan to name QPAC’s new theatre after a prominent First Nations figure (Oodgeroo Noonuccal was frontrunner) in favour of a public vote. It’s now the ‘Glasshouse’ — the same name as a theatre in Port Macquarie 🤔

MEAA condemns targeted attacks on Gaza journalists as a war crime as toll nears 200 deaths

‘Alien is a warning, isn’t it?’: Essie Davis on Alien: Earth and Tasmania’s ecological crisis

Port Willunga beach / Tirranangku is one of the most beautiful places I know. Visited today for the first time in months and it hit me right in the guts:

Well worth a read — one story that captures the tensions of writing history in this country, from descendants defensively gatekeeping primary sources, to the cottage industry of small publishers, to the First Nations communities that always knew the truth: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Big turnout this afternoon on Kaurna Yarta, marching across King William St bridge to Parliament House

“How many singers and songwriters do we have, that have all these beautiful stories to tell, but they can’t get on the stage to do that?" A state government-backed industry showcase drew criticism after failing to accommodate an artist who uses a wheelchair: www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/mus...

Pre-order links for UK and US editions of The Butterfly Thief — with alternative cover 🦋 🇬🇧 scribepublications.co.uk/books-author... 🇺🇸 scribepublications.com/books-author...

“I have discovered this amazing creative community all over Adelaide; teachers, art teachers, drama teachers, independent artists, people working in schools, all kinds of people are now on that page and ask for the craziest stuff.” www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/the...

Imagine the public outcry and Murdoch media beat-up if Australia allowed the China lobby to define sinophobia then enacted censorship on the PRC's behalf. Yet that's exactly what's happening with Israel and antisemitism.

🦋 My new book ‘The Butterfly Thief: adventure, empire, and Australia’s greatest museum heist’ is out in Australia/UK/US from October via @scribepub.bsky.social 🦋 Pre-order here: scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/the-butterfly-thief-9781761381478

Our cat loves to browse books at night

Someone needs to tell our university executive class too:

Speaking out on Gaza: Australian creatives and arts organisations struggle to reconcile competing pressures

He’s been hanged, stabbed and cut in galleries – now artist Carlos Martiel is being buried alive

“When I was finally taken down and went into the gallery director’s office to rest, I cried inconsolably for about 20 minutes. That had never happened to me before.” I profiled Carlos Martiel ahead of his Dark Mofo performance: www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

“We saw the worst of systems and the best of people” - @jennifermills.net.au on how a pandemic in Italy informed her spec fic novel Salvage, which we launched tonight ✨ www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761563775/

Book tour starts next week! All the details at jennifermills.net.au/events

The ‘dangerous’ Australian women whose art was dismissed, forgotten – and even set on fire

An unpublished novel about the Stolen Generations won a prestigious $15,000 fellowship from the State Library of Queensland – until the Queensland Government found a tweet by its author. www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/boo...

Couple of thoughts on this: 1) Bogan's are the country's strength, like a rottweiler. 2) If this guy is responsible for "Bogan English" becoming a dialect of Australian English, I think that is only to the advantage of the culture. 3) I often joke that Australia is "hot Russia". I feel vindicated.