The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Search the blogs

Kathy Mexted, Australian Women Pilots: Amazing true stories of women in the air

Kathy Mexted, Australian Women Pilots: Amazing true stories of women in the air NewSouth Books, November 2020, p/bk, 272pp, ISBN: 9781742236971, RRP: AUD$34.99 Thanks to the determination, grit, and spunk of the ten women Kathy Mexted chronicles in her first book Australian…

Amanda Laugesen, Rooted: An Australian History of Bad Language

Amanda Laugesen, Rooted: An Australian History of Bad Language NewSouth Publishers, 2020, 314 pp. ISBN: 9781742236636, p/bk, AUD$32.99 'Oh, that book is for Rachel.' It was a statement. A bit like 'it’s started to rain' or 'it’s time to put the kettle…

Meredith Lake, The Bible in Australia: A cultural history, updated edition

Meredith Lake, The Bible in Australia: A cultural history, updated edition NewSouth Books, 2020, 518 pp. ISBN: 9781742237213, p/bk, AUS$32.99 Meredith Lake’s The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History is now available in a second edition. When I first reviewed Lake’s epic…

Bettina Bradbury, Caroline’s Dilemma: A colonial inheritance saga

Bettina Bradbury, Caroline’s Dilemma: A colonial inheritance saga NewSouth, November 2019, 352pp, p/bk, ISBN: 9781742236605, RRP: AUD$34.99 If you hold a romanticised appreciation of living a middle-class life on the land in the Victorian era, then this non-fiction book will challenge that…

Siobhán McHugh, The Snowy: A History

Siobhán McHugh, The Snowy: A History (Anniversary edition) Paperback, May 2019, NewSouth, ISBN: 9781742236223, 368pp., AUD$34.99 This month marks the 70th anniversary of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme, the largest engineering project in Australia. This anniversary edition is updated from the 1989…

Tom Frame, Gun Control: What Australian Got Right (and Wrong)

Tom Frame, Gun Control: What Australia Got Right (and Wrong) NewSouth Books, 2019, 201 pp., ISBN: 9781742236346, p/bk, AUS$34.99 Professor Tom Frame’s Gun Control: What Australia Got Right (and Wrong) offers a clear and concise history of Australian politics and policy for the…

James Dunk, Bedlam at Botany Bay

James Dunk, Bedlam at Botany Bay NewSouth Books, 2019, 244 pp. (plus notes, select bibliography and index), ISBN: 9781742236179, p/bk, AUS$34.99   Looking at the great corpus of works that exist on Australia's colonial history, there are so many available to inspire (and…

Sally Young, Paper Emperors: The Rise of Australia’s Newspaper Empires

Sally Young, Paper Emperors: The Rise of Australia’s Newspaper Empires NewSouth Books, 2019, 654 pp., ISBN: 9781742234984, p/bk, AUS$39.99 Sally Young’s new book, Paper Emperors: The Rise of Australia’s Newspaper Empires (2019), is stunning. The history of print media is messy. It is more…

Sharon Hudgins (ed), Food on the Move: Dining on the Legendary Railway Journeys of the World

Sharon Hudgins (ed), Food on the Move: Dining on the Legendary Railway Journeys of the World Reaktion Books / NewSouth Books, 2019, 256 pp., ISBN: 9781789140071, h/bk, AUS$49.99 Editor Sharon Hudgins has curated nine tales of food and travel, in Food on…

Julie McIntyre and John Germov, Hunter Wine: A History

Julie McIntyre and John Germov, Hunter Wine: A History NewSouth Books, 2018, 287 pp. (plus bibliography and index), ISBN: 9781742235769, p/bk, AUS$49.99 Robert Louis Stevenson once suggested 'wine is bottled poetry'. In their captivating new book Hunter Wine: A History, historian Julie McIntyre…