Jack Irish

Jack Irish, created by Peter Temple (1946-2018), has become a popular character in Australian crime fiction. Jack, a former criminal lawyer, now spends much of his time drinking and or betting on the races. He lives in Fitzroy, an inner suburb of Melbourne, and as he attempts to get his life back on track helps a friend make high quality furniture. Jack tries to stay on the right side of the law but this is not always easy as his life often becomes entangled in sorting out or solving a crime, at times involving former associates and / or horse racing.

Born in South Africa Peter Temple moved to Australia in 1980. Initially he worked as a journalist and a lecturer before turning to writing novels. He is perhaps best known for the four titles in the Jack Irish series - Bad Debts (1996), Black Tide (1999), Dead Point (2000) and White Dog (2003) but has also written other books including An Iron Rose (1998), Shooting Star (1999), In the Evil Day / Identity Theory (2002), The Broken Shore (2005) and its sequel Truth (2009). The Red Hand (a collection of mostly unpublished writing) was published in 2019. Awards won for his work include The Ned Kelly award, a Miles Franklin award and a Colin Roderick award. In 2007, The Broken Shore was also awarded the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s Duncan Lawrie Gold Dagger.

The Jack Irish books have also been adapted for television. Bad Debts, Black Point and Dead Tide were shown as telemovies on ABC TV between 2012 and 2014. Since then two six part series, entitled Jack Irish, based on the characters created by Peter Temple were shown on ABC TV in 2016 and 2018. The final four part Jack Irish series will air on ABC TV from mid-June 2021. Guy Pearce plays Jack Irish.

Acclaimed crime writer Peter Temple Dies, aged 71  Sydney Morning Herald, March 11 2018

The Librarian

Last year on the Sy-fi channel on Foxtel I discovered a program called The Librarians. The fourth series ended this month. A colleague, another librarian, told me that before the television series there had been three television films with the general title, The Librarian. In his opinion the films were better than the series. I borrowed a DVD, The Librarian Trilogy, containing the three films from my local library and have just finished watching them. Some of the events in the telelvision series now make more sense having seen the films though you can still enjoy the television programs on their own.

The Librarian: Quest for the Spear was released in 2004, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines in 2006 and The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice in 2008. The television series, The Librarians, ran from 2014-2018. A fifth series was planned but was cancelled earlier this month.

Watching these programs takes you into a word of fantasy and adventure and often humour as the staff of The Library attempt to prevent ancient and usually mystical treasures from falling into the hands of those who want to use the power of the object for evil purposes. There are frequent allusions to mythology, literature or history in each storyline.

Flynn Carson is the initially reluctant librarian recruited to work with Charlene and Judson in The Library which secretly houses the treasures of the world. In the films he travels, by conventional transport, to different parts of the world on his dangerous quests. Flynn appears in many of the television episodes but is now The Librarian working with a team of younger librarians, Jacob Stone, Cassandra Cillian and Ezekiel Jones. Each member of the team has special powers. The fourth member of the team is Eve Baird who has the role of protecting the librarians. Jenkins is their mentor and care-taker of the library. In the television series the librarians travel to and from their destination via a special portal.

All in all I have totally enjoyed entering the world of The Library with its special treasures and personality and watching the endeavours of the librarians striving to protect the world and The Library from mystical danger.