I am in the middle of reading the recently released All the Poems of Muriel Spark (2004) and eagerly await the follow-up to the first part of her autobiography Curriculum Vitae (1992).

The references listed in the curriculum vitae that formed part of Paul Nettl's application to Indiana University included Albert Einstein, German physicist and Nobel prizewinner in 1921; Alfred Einstein, German musicologist; and Thomas Mann, German novelist, critic and Nobel prizewinner in 1929.

Coombs' importance in modern Australian history as the supreme public servant can be gauged from the entries in his extraordinary curriculum vitae, ranging from his early years as a bank economist and treasury official, to wartime appointments as director of Rationing and director-general of Postwar Reconstruction, to governor of both the Commonwealth and Reserve Banks (the latter from 1949 to 1968).