Whitton claimed never to have discovered a new fact, but to have made his considerable impact through the practice of what he called “pattern journalism”, the meticulous gathering of accessible detail and its arrangement in order, to reveal meaning. This 1986 book is full of good things, not least a long collection of brief biographies of colourful characters that spawned a dozen cheap and derivative imitators. Whitton had lived in Queensland and Victoria before joining the National Times, which perhaps contributed to the powerful sense of connectivity that is his hallmark.
