The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…