He is a prolific critic of Australian Literature. When he won the Geraldine Pascall Prize for Australian Critic of the Year, the judges stated that: 'He operates at the point where scholarly precision and essayistic liberty intersect. ... In a Ley review, you may be sure that an independent opinion informed by wide reading and sharp thinking is being stated'.[2]
Selected works
The Critic in the Modern World : Public Criticism from Samuel Johnson to James Wood. 2014.
The Australian Face : Essays from the Sydney Review of Books. 2017.