Daniel Best - Author

Australia news live: Adelaide writers’ week cancelled as festival board apologises to Randa Abdel-Fattah Follow updates live

#AdelaideWritersFestival is now cancelled for 2026. This is incredibly sad and insanely frustrating. This should never have happened, and steps have to be put in place to ensure no outside agency or politician can influence the event ever again.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Why are people so scared of words? What terrifies some people about a group of writers talking in public? Suppression and censorship of writers has happened in the past, and it's never ended well for everyone. Now it's happening again.

Do not go quietly.

#AdelaideWritersFestival

I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I am resigning as director of Adelaide Writers’ Week | Louise Adler Cancelling the Australian Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation

Louise Adler has stood down as director of #AdelaideWritersWeek. Her reasons explain everything. I am gutted. If you applaud the demise of writer's week, you need serious help. This is an event of literature and views. What are people so afraid of?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

How odd.

You can add Henry Reynolds to this now as he’s withdrawn. There have been some who have wanted to defund the #AdelaideWritersWeek for a while now. Thanks to the actions of the Board, they’re going to get their way.

This is sadness beyond words.

The Perils of Non-Fiction and Censorship Adelaide Writer's Week 2026

FWIW, here’s my take on it.

danielbest1967.substack.com/p/the-perils...

The Perils of Non-Fiction and Censorship Adelaide Writer's Week 2026

My own piece about #AdelaideWritersWeek. I'm not that important, so read it if you want.

open.substack.com/pub/danielbe...

My reply to the Adelaide Festival Board's email. I'll add the text in a thread.

In no way do I believe this ill-conceived decision has come from the Adelaide Writers Week team.

Always was always will be / From the river to the sea ✊🏾

Statement from the Australia Institute withdrawing from Adelaide festival.

Personal statement withdrawing from the Festival.

Following the decision from the Board of the Adelaide Festival, The Australia Institute is withdrawing its support from this year’s literary festival. Here is our statement, and a personal one from me.

The Great Palestinian Silence It seems everyone is tweeting about freedom of speech. So let me tell you a story about freedom of speech and the exceptional case of Palestine. In the days leading up to Israel’s proposed annexati…

No Adelaide Writers Week for me. I can’t in any good conscience now appear at a festival seeking to mute a very necessary public conversation … Randa Abdel-Fattah is an important voice. Here’s something I published from her on, guess what, Palestinian marginalisation. meanjin.com.au/latest/the-g...

As a former Director of Adelaide Writers' Week I am appalled that the Adelaide Festival Board has rescinded Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah's invitation to the 2026 AWW, explicitly linking its decision to the shattering crimes in Bondi.

A shocking decision that will and should have far-reaching consequences.

This is highly disappointing. #AdelaideWritersWeek has caved in under pressure from lobbyists and are now removing people who don't fall into line with Zionists. This is not how Writer's Week should be run.

This is pure censorship from the Board. I can't see it survives now.

Looking over the preliminary list for 2026's Adelaide Writer's Week. So far everything announced is a ticketed event that will cost money. I guess the days of seeing great authors free of charge at Writer's Week is over. So sad. I'll still go, but I can't afford all of it.

#WritersWeek

Each week I become more and more reclusive. It’s odd really. I don’t mind it when I do see people, but I go for weeks on end without talking to anyone other than neighbours. I’m at the point where only one chum invites me for brekkie now, and that’s when he visits from Melbourne. It’s interesting.

My uncle once told me, if you’re an arsehole in life you don’t become a saint in death.

When someone dies, their ‘good’ does not erase their ‘bad’. It all makes up the whole of a life. You don’t get to pick and choose what you want people to talk about.

Just tell the truth.

Binned from Twitter again for daring to suggest that John Laws wasn’t the saint that people want others to believe he was. Oh well. Funny really.

Never liked it. It's just an awful day for many reasons. The abuse of animals, the domestic violence, the fleecing of people. It'd be good to see this kind of crap ended for good, but that's a long way off. Until then, you won't catch me near it.

#NupToTheCup

Pavolich v Gaiman: Case Dismissed Does Not Mean It's All Over Technicalities...

In the words of the philosopher L. Kravitz, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”

#NeilGaiman

open.substack.com/pub/danielbe...

The New Wave of Australian Horror Films: Night Of Fear 'Strictly speaking, it's a tale of mice and men.' Australian Jewish News 20 July 1973

Finally updated and ‘remixed’ (whatever that means). Read all about the first true horror film to be made in Australia since 1924.

And no, it’s not Wake In Fright. Sorry, that’s not a genuine horror.

#HorrorFilms #AustralianCinema
danielbest1967.substack.com/p/the-new-wa...

Absolutely. You reach a point where you just think, why am I bothering? Then you just close it all out. I'm tempted to just keep the user name so nobody else swoops on it and simply delete the contents.

I'm slowly learning what it means to quit a social media platform without anybody noticing or caring.

It's a bit odd, but I'm going to be winding back my presence mainly because I'm tired of the abuse and, frankly, nobody needs to hear my opinion on anything really.

FRANKENSTEIN IN AUSTRALIA 1832 to 1973 PART ONE: 1832 to 1910 Frankenstein from Stage to Screen

The first in a detailed series examining the long history that Australia has with Frankenstein and his monster. Part one looks at the stage and the silent film era.

#Horror #Frankenstein #Stage #SilentCinema
open.substack.com/pub/danielbe...

Tasmanians!! Cracked and Spineless in Hobart now have copies of my Louise Lovely book. Get in there and grab your copy. And they're all signed - by me.

The Short Life and Sad Death of Universal’s First Australian Leading Man Claude Saunders, a.k.a Jack Lloyd

Read about the first Australian who headlined the first talkie serial Universal filmed in the United Kingdom, and his tragic end.
#Australia #History #Stage #Cinema

open.substack.com/pub/danielbe...

This Friday, it's going to be vile weather in #Adelaide. So why not pop out to the Palace Nova and watch a classic Universal Horror - Creature From The Black Lagoon! I'll be doing a Q&A and have a couple of my books for giveaways.

Get your tickets here.
www.palacenova.com.au/films/creatu...

Daniel Best (@danbest) Growing up I wasn't a massive fan of Black Sabbath. We had the Paranoid album and it got played to death, of course. I have always admitted that I found the riffs to be a bit repetitive overall. The s...

My own thoughts on Ozzy. They didn't break the mould when he was born because they never had one.

#OzzyOsbourne

substack.com/profile/3453...

Right now my only source of income, as small as it is, is my books and my Substack. Do consider either buying a book, or supporting me via Substack. You can find my books via Amazon and my Substack is here.

I'll keep applying for jobs, but I doubt I'm going to land one. I have no idea what I'm going to between now and when my Super kicks in, but, I guess I'll muddle through it.

If anyone wants someone who can write all kinds of things and isn't a robot, I'm your guy.

I guess it had to happen. I'm now classified as 'semi-retired'. What was a strength for me, work wise, was my skill in writing. I was told today that AI can do that, so my strengths are now weaknesses.

My applications aren't even being responded to. I don't know how to feel.