The prince

Special Mention, Individual Category, Centre for Australian Cultural Studies National Awards 1997 In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift suggested that Ireland's chronic famine and impoverishment could be solved by the Irish eating their superfluous children. No one would imagine eating children in festival-obsessed Hampton---the residents are too busy counting their money gleaned from the annual Festival of Killing. And if seven adult residents need to be killed by the committee-appointed Killer each year to guarantee that prosperity, so be it. Shifting effortlessly from broad farce to satire, Tim Richards introduces Machiavelli and More to a society where economic rationalists can speak of gambling-led economic recoveries, to an age when the golden rule of Do unto others as you would have them do unto you' has been replaced with 'There is no such thing as bad money'. A remarkable novel from a writer who is fast emerging as Australia's leading satirist.