Review of The Sons of Clovis: Ern Malley, Adoré Floupette and a Secret History of Australian Poetry, by David Brooks

Abstract

'Ern Malley? Again! The story of Ern Malley has surely been told often enough.' Thus David Brooks begins The Sons of Clovis, an erudite, painstakingly researched and convincingly argued book about the Ern Malley hoax, and many other things besides. This book is clearly a labour of love, and it is not difficult to believe that it took David Brooks the twenty years he claims he has been writing it. And for someone like myself, who thought they knew most of what there was to know about the Ern Malley affair, it was a revelation.