"Barnacles and parasites" started life as the Masters thesis of the author Reece Jennings before morphing into this self-published tome. With this in mind, I hesitantly picked this as reading material.

As it turns out, "Barnacles and Parasites" is quite a worthwhile read (if your interpretation of "worthwhile read" is a book on independent politicians in the South Australian parliament). I'm guessing that I am one of only a handful of people who have read this, and the possible audience of further readership for this is only a handful more, which is a shame as Jennings covers the key Independents well and brings these long-dead politicians back to life and into the spotlight again.

In particular, Tom Stott, who is still the longest serving independent politician in Australian history, is given a very sympathetic coverage by Jennings and one almost feels sorry for Stott at the end of his life when it feels like his life has not accounted to much.

As an aside, Jenninsgs is a former suburban Adelaide mayor with an ... interesting past. ( )