Marou and Claire met at a bar in Tokyo. Separated by seventeen years in age, by their cultural origins and by the requirements of visas, they have managed to maintain their relationship through these vicissitudes. Autobiography, duography, love story, cross-cultural reflections and lesbian history, Love Upon the Chopping Board explores the personal and political of lesbianism in Japan and...

Can a prostitute be raped? Are pregnancy and STIs an Occupational Health and Safety issue? What sort of society buys and sells women and children for sex? Does legalisation solve the dangers of sex work? Sex worker advocates have argued for many years that legalising prostitution is the way to make the industry safer both for workers and clients. In 1984, the State of Victoria did just...

At the end of the clearing, an old banyan tree grew out of the remains of an earlier round stepwell. A little further on was another lake. This must have been an oasis of multiple delights. Over a thousand years later, it was as if I could still be intoxicated by the tranquillity and protectiveness of this enclosed yet open valley. The sun starts descending, and its light changes the gorge’s...

Jane and Alice Melville are looking for a living wage. Although well qualified with a ‘boy’s education’, neither can find a suitable position. They are disinherited by an uncle who believes that money will turn their heads and make them too independent. Driven to desperation in their struggle to support themselves, eventually they look abroad for new opportunities. But life in the new world...