Christmas tree in 2UW radio studio 24 December 1937, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (hood_17028 / Home & Away 17028)
Happy summer holidays and festive season to all our readers!
The Dictionary team wishes you all a pleasant holiday season and a happy New Year. We have had over 200,000 unique visitors during the year and you have been one of them! We are looking forward to an exciting 2014.
To finish the year we thought we would share some of our favourite reading from 2013 and new books by Dictionary authors and colleagues published this year.
But first, thank you to our major government partner, the City of Sydney, our community partners including the team at 2SER, our Chair and board members, volunteers, supporters, authors, multimedia contributors and readers. You make the Dictionary the special resource that it is.
Summer reading
Summer is for catching up on reading. Why not start with these new works by Dictionary contributors and colleagues from 2013:
Interior of Angus & Robertson booksellers, Castlereagh Street, Sydney, 1946. By Bradford Pty Ltd, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales (SPF/1164)
Books, blogs and podcasts:
Staff picks from 2013 Lisa Murray
That Doctor Who Sound Dictionary Chair, Lisa Murray, recommends this radio documentary on the BBC radiophonic workshop that created the Doctor Who theme song (there are a few Whovians at the Dictionary who will enjoy this!)
Public Sydney: Drawing the City by Philip Thalis and Peter John Cantrill, published by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW and UNSW in 2013. Says Lisa: "This gorgeous folio sized book is a must for urbanists, architects and historians." The book's essays include one by Lisa exploring how the City's architects contributed to the design of our public spaces, and how gender shapes the city's social spaces.
Public Intimacies: The Royal Commission on Human Relationships Lisa also recommends this Hindsight documentary looks at the Royal Commission set up by the Whitlam Government into family life. It provoked fierce outrage and resistance at the time and started conversations that we’re still having today.
Kim HannaThen and Now: Historic Roads Around Sydney Ever the eclectic, Dictionary EO, Kim Hanna, recommends Historic Roads Around Sydney by John Fairfax, 1951. Kim: "Whilst very much of its day…[it]…is full of interesting facts such as the first recorded Spanish free settler to Sydney was Jean De Arrieta, who arrived in 1821". Available from discerning online booksellers and libraries of quality.
Jacqueline SpeddingThe Dictionary of Sydneyhad me hooked from the start and I continue to be delighted and surprised by what I discover. It is impossible to pick favourites but a few that stick in my mind are: the transport of Irish orphan girls and workhouse women; the reformatory for girls on Cockatoo Island, the odd characters of the Cooks River including the Fighting Hen, Fred Maynard and the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association and the real story of Woollarawarre Bennelong. Not to mention Lisa's podcasts on Wonderland City, Sydney's first ice and a favourite of mine, Sydney Rock Oysters.
Mirror Sydney was a great find. I love Vanessa Berry's blogspot, not the least for all the fond childhood memories it brought back including that wonder of the harbour - Flanagan's Afloat! Thanks Vanessa!
The Recluse, Giramondo Publishing, 2012. Evelyn Juer's book is one of the few I had time to read this year. It plumbs the life of Eliza Donnithorne of Newtown, mythologised as the inspiration for Charles Dicken's character, Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.
Linda BrainwoodBold Palates: Australia's Gastronomic Heritage by Barbara Santich is one of Linda Brainwood's favourites this year and - in her words "... not just for the great, well-cited illustrations" (Linda is our picture editor, after all) Published by Wakefield Press, Linda says "Every time we cook lamb now I think about its place in the Australian psyche." Sounds perfect for Christmas.
FBI’s All the Best’s three part series ‘These Walls Have Ears'. Linda recommends this set of podcasts by talented people about aspects of the history of the Rocks for The Rocks Windmill festival in April/May this year.
Garry WotherspoonThe Lacunaby Barbara Kingsolver is the favourite read of the year for our long-standing volunteer, Garry Wotherspoon, who is fond of historical fiction. Published by Harper, NY, 2009, Garry says it has a "wonderfully ambiguous ending". Set mainly in Mexico, it features "such ‘exotica’ as Diego Rivera, Frieda Karlo, Trotsky, and sundry other people, including the hero, Harrison Shepherd. It follows his life, and segues into the McCarthyist purges that occurred later in the USA".
Catie GilchristGirt: The Unauthorised History of Australiaby David Hunt is the pick of the bunch for our volunteer researcher and writer, Catie Gilchrist. Published by Penguin in 2013, if you enjoy "..the strange, the ridiculous and the frankly bizarre moments of our early history", as Catie does, then this history is for you!
Steven HayesSilences and Secrets: The Australian Experience of the Weintraubs Syncopators by Kay Drefus captured the interest of our technical project manager and all-round good Dictionary fellow, Steven Hayes. While tuned into Books and Arts on Radio National, Steven heard an interview with Kay Dreyfus talking about her new book, which details how the demise of a once popular Weimar Republic jazz band who relocated to Sydney at the end of the silent movie era. They were interned with other Germans during the war and this, combined with the hostility of the musician's union in WWII Australia, killed their careers.
---Happy readingand see you in 2014 for what promises to be an exciting year!
Christmas tree in 2UW radio studio 24 December 1937, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (hood_17028 / Home & Away 17028)
Interior of Angus & Robertson booksellers, Castlereagh Street, Sydney, 1946. By Bradford Pty Ltd, courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales (SPF/1164)