Find the answer in a new book of Explainers from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

It is certainly one of the most perplexing questions you’re likely to come across:what’s it like to be chased by a cassowary?

Well, luckily, you’ll discover the answer – and the answers to many other fascinating questions – in a new book What’s It Like To Be Chased By A Cassowary? packed with entertaining explainer articles from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age released on Tuesday, December 1.

Written by some of Australia’s finest writers from the two mastheads, What’s It Like To Be Chased By A Cassowary? is curated from the nearly 300 explainers commissioned so far and includes other pieces produced especially for the book.

Edited by Felicity Lewis, national explainer editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and illustrated by The Sydney Morning Herald creative director Dionne Gain, the diverse collection of explainers covers a wide range of topics from why people post lizards in the mail, why cicadas sing at dusk and how the Esky became a cultural icon, to how spies operate in Australia, the biomechanics of football and how bushfires are connected to climate change.  

“An explainer should make sense of issues or buzzwords that keep cropping up but you’re never quite sure what they mean,” says Felicity, who during the course of commissioning explainers, broadened her brief beyond the news cycle to explore questions of everyday life such as Are We Alone in the Universe? “Sometimes with news it’s like you missed the first chapter. So explainers catch you up.”

 “I couldn’t really find a book like this when I went looking I wanted to explore some distinctly Australian topics, and look at world issues through an Australian prism, in ways that are fresh – packed with information, and surprising and entertaining too. My hope is that people will keep coming back to this book – the subjects we’ve tackled have ongoing relevance.”  

The explainer column, started in September 2018, has become one of the most popular ongoing series for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, bringing context to complex – and some not-so-complex but nonetheless fascinating – issues. 

So, just what is it like to be chased by a cassowary? Hint: If the bird lets out a deep, deep boom – run.    

In bookstores from December 1 and online on Booktopia. Subscribers to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can receive an exclusive 30% off the RRP of $32.99 through the Age and Herald subscriber hubs. What’s It Like To Be Chased By A Cassowary? is published by Penguin Books Australia and is also available as an audio book on Audible.

For more information or an interview with book editor and explainer editor Felicity Lewis or explainer reporter Sherryn Groch please contact: 

Adrian Motte
Communications Manager, Nine
amotte@nine.com.au

Monday, November 23, 2020