December 2005 - January 2006 in brief

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In "Enough Already", Andrew West examines Peter Jensen: Anglican archbishop, scourge of John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull, and a man with a vision of a country and a Liberal Party more interested in love than money.

Shane Maloney presents the Monthly's "Chutzpah Awards": "2005 has been a bumper year for unmitigated gall, sheer effrontery and shameless audacity."

Tony Wilson, in "Mr Huge", hangs out in Manila with Australia's richest gambler, Alan Woods, and unravels the secret to his millions.

Tony Clifton, in "Lilypad of the Arafura", travels to Darwin to see what's next for Australia's last frontier society, finding it an "ocker Honolulu".

Robert Dessaix, in "Feeling Frisky", explores Vladivostok and is troubled that everywhere is anywhere when you travel these days.

John King, in "How Many Sleeps?", contemplates how nothing prepares a parent for the day their partner leaves, taking the children with them.

"Show Me the Horror": Clive James on film directors, producers and the importance of unsubtlety.

In The Nation Reviewed, Margaret Simons attends the inaugural conference of the government body overseeing broadcasting in Australia; MJ Hyland tells of fumigation in London and Amsterdam; Richard Cooke explains why drug dealers vote Liberal; Julienne van Loon investigates Western Australia's dubious 'Hoon Laws'; and Helen Garner discovers a German magician capable of the extraordinary.

Plus, in Arts & Letters, Maria Tumarkin eavesdrops on Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir through Hazel Rowley's Tête-à-Tête, Drusilla Modjeska considers Alex Miller's latest novel, Matthew Ricketson describes the "The Dog Days of Ray Martin", and Robert Forster looks at Franz Ferdinand, the band that is changing the rock song.