Hugh Mackay
Just Saying
Reflections on profound sayings, ancient and modern, by iconic social researcher Hugh Mackay
Allen & Unwin, 2025
Warm, witty, wise – and occasionally challenging – Just Saying is bestselling social psychologist Hugh Mackay's highly personal reflections on twenty-five quotations from some of the world's greatest thinkers and writers, from Confucius and Plato to Susan Sontag and Miles Franklin; from Samuel Johnson and Mary Wollstonecraft to Bertrand Russell and Gloria Steinem.
Interpreting our world and inspiring us to do better, Mackay explores themes ranging from kindness and humility to power and prejudice; from gender equality to ethnic diversity; from coping with change to the damage inflicted on ourselves by revenge, and the great gulf between propriety and virtue.
As Mackay says: 'Writing these reflections has felt a bit like the beginning of a conversation ... now it's over to you.'
The Therapist
Allen & Unwin, 2023
Martha Elliott, maverick psychotherapist, harbours some dark secrets from her own past, and is more interested in achieving good outcomes for her clients than playing by the rules. Martha blends counselling with breathing exercises, meditation, foot massages . . . whatever it takes. In a series of intense encounters with her clients, deep insights and raw truths about human nature emerge, including reflections on the nature of psychotherapy itself.
Rob, Martha's colleague, is trapped in a tempestuous relationship with the beautiful and feisty Constancia, and Martha wonders if he will ever find the resolve to free himself. Samantha, Martha's daughter, hears her biological clock ticking, but finding the right sperm donor is proving to be harder than she expected . . .
Then there's the mysterious couple who arrive in Martha's office. Who are they? And what is it that they know about her?
With tenderness and compassion, Hugh Mackay's captivating novel, The Therapist, explores some of the deepest yearnings of the human heart. It's a powerful and poignant story of deception, ambiguity, lust and love – and the challenge of living with the consequences of our actions.
About the Author
Described as 'the man who explains us to ourselves', Hugh Mackay is a social psychologist and the bestselling author of twenty-five books, including The Way We Are and The Kindness Revolution. He had a sixty-year career in social research and was for thirty years a weekly newspaper columnist.
In recognition of his pioneering work in social research, he has been awarded honorary doctorates by five Australian universities and in 2016 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.
