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I think that’s strange, don’t you? The convicts never seemed to be anything to do with me. But of course, they’re a lot to do with us.”There’s a lot of overlapping guilt here, especially when you start to speculate about Carey’s own identification with Magwitch, in leaving his natural family behind in Bacchus Marsh, and going in search of a new identity in Notting Hill and now on the streets of Manhattan. But Carey doesn’t take kindly to cheap psychology, as he dislikes any other form of pigeonholing. Perhaps we should settle just for calling him a world-class writer with an unresolved complex about the mythologies and nasty realities of his native land His next novel project is a book on Ned Kelly. Another Australian parallel history, like Jack Maggs? Is he becoming the conscience of his race? Carey raises an eyebrow.

“A guy in the Melbourne Age, when he was asked about my writing, said it was as if the Australian Literary and Academic Industry were looking for something which would represent Oz Literature And I was definitely not it, and that was the problem I think that’s true”. When James Whyte was told that he would have to spend 75 per cent of his working time abroad, he had, in his mind, little choice about the right thing to do. Mr Whyte, 32, a pounds 40,000-a-year record company executive, told his boss at EMI that he could not accept the change. He had a one- year -old daughter, Emma, and his family had to come first.

With EMI unwilling to budge, Mr Whyte threatened to resign and, to his surprise, found himself out of a job. “I was going to miss my lovely BMW 3-series coupe, the pounds 300-a-year private health insurance and free CDs every month,” said Mr Whyte. “I felt terrified, suddenly I had no money and a young family to feed. But if I didn’t do it, I would never have seen my daughter starting to crawl, walk and recognise me as daddy.”
It is a familiar story, though more usually it is women who make the hard choice. Coming back from maternity leave, they frequently encounter a rigid work culture that is incompatible with spending time with their children. So they leave.This week, however, an important battle in the war to balance home and work was won, thanks to Mr Whyte.

An industrial tribunal awarded him more than pounds 9,000 for constructive dismissal. The tribunal concluded that EMI had made unreasonable demands upon Mr Whyte, who had already agreed to spend 40 per cent of his time working away from home.This case, however, is just one sign of the family crises caused by the demands of work, particularly on dual-income couples. “The fundamental problem is sustaining relationships,” says Penny De Valk, manager of Work/Life Directions, a consultancy which advises businesses on more family friendly policies.”Travelling away from home can create terrible pressures on marriages when you might be away for half the time.” One partner may be in a job that means going away for weeks at a time at short notice, shattering the carefully constructed system of nannies, baby-sitters and shared responsibilities. When that person returns home, it may be difficult for them to fit in again, because the home-based partner has ceased to rely on them and found other ways to manage.Mr Whyte’s wife, Jo, supported his decision, even though, she said, she was terrified when he came home and said that he would have no salary any more.”I would rather that he had no job at all,” she said, ” than be travelling around the world the whole time.

I would never have seen him and neither would Emma.”Concern about such problems is running high, particularly among professional groups, and it is shared equally by men and women, according to Ms De Valk. “Fast cars, fat-cat salaries and flashy penthouses are no longer enough for the young and upwardly mobile. What they really, really want is to get a life.”It is a sentiment James Whyte echoes. “Seeing my daughter grow up was the most important thing in my life and it was essential I didn’t miss it,” he said after winning this week’s case.