Shelter from the Holocaust: Astley's Item from the Late News

In an interview with Jennifer Ellison, Thea Astley reaffirmed her belief that a novel lasts only six months - unless it's War and Peace - adding, "I think novels should probably have a date stamped on them, like milk. 'Read by 18 October'." This would be especially applicable to An Item from the Late News, a novel about the nuclear issue, the political details of which are forever changing, were it not for the fact that Astley's novel is indeed about the wider issues of war and peace in twentieth-century terms. Despite its sociopolitical implications, An Item from the Late News is not primarily concerned with the hardware, or even the software of the nuclear threat out there, but rather the more insidious threat within, from which there is no material shelter but only the fragile protection of spiritual values.