Brown Paper Packages and How to Open Them: Review of 'The Australian Editing Handbook', second edition. Elizabeth Flann and Beryl Hill, John Wiley & Sons Australia, 2005. ISBN 1 74031 088 8 358pp. Pb AU$44.95

Abstract

In her memoir, 'Stet: An Editor's Life', Diana Athill tells how she once edited a manuscript so extensively that she reworked every paragraph and rewrote almost every sentence, relaying it back and forth between herself and the bad-tempered author. Nevertheless, she found it an enjoyable task: 'It was like removing layers of crumpled brown paper from an awkwardly shaped parcel, and revealing the attractive present which it contained...' The book was published and received an excellent review in the 'Times Literary Supplement', with a comment that it was 'beautifully written'. The author sent Athill a note: 'You will observe the comment about the writing which confirms what I have thought all along, that one of that fuss about it was necessary' (37-38). Is the 'fuss' necessary? Of course it is. Is it enjoyable? For some undoubtedly it is, but for others, getting rid of that crumpled brown paper can be a complex, frustrating, thankless and underpaid job, particularly when faced by the challenges now presented by e-publishing. Like many editors, however, I keep coming back for more. I have been involved in editing corporate and academic publications, had my own writing subjected to the editor's pen (and mouse), been a student of writing and editing and, most recently, begun to teach writing and editing. The 'Australian Editing Handbook' did not exist when I began editing, and it certainly would have helped to make sense of what I essentially learned on the job over many years.