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Peter Corris, See you at the Toxteth: the best of Cliff Hardy and Corris on crime
Peter Corris, See you at the Toxteth: the best of Cliff Hardy and Corris on crime Selected by Jean Bedford Allen & Unwin, 2019, 323 pp., ISBN: 9781760875633, p/bk, AUS$29.99 Many readers will feel privileged to hold one more book from Peter Corris…
Tanya Bretherton, The Suicide Bride; A Mystery of Tragedy and Family Secrets in Edwardian Sydney
Tanya Bretherton, The Suicide Bride; A Mystery of Tragedy and Family Secrets in Edwardian Sydney Hachette Australia, 2019, pp 1-311, ISBN: 9780733640988, RRP $32.99 Mid-morning, Tuesday 12 January 1904, Watkin Street, Newtown. Four-year-old Mervyn Sly probably did not fully comprehend the horror he…
Jessica North, Esther; The extraordinary true story of the First Fleet girl who became First Lady of the colony
Jessica North, Esther; The extraordinary true story of the First Fleet girl who became First Lady of the colony Allen & Unwin, 2019, pp 1-277, ISBN 9781760527372, p/bk, AUS$29.99 They could have hanged Esther Abrahams. In 1786, the pretty young Jewish woman had attempted…
Leigh Straw, Angel of Death Dulcie Markham, Australia’s most beautiful bad woman
Leigh Straw, Angel of Death Dulcie Markham, Australia’s most beautiful bad woman HarperCollins, 2019, ISBN 978073333966 (p/bk), pp1-312, RRP $32.99 Angel of Death is the third book by writer and historian Leigh Straw that focus on Australian women and crime. It follows…
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…
Judith Brett, Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage
Judith Brett, Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting Text Publishing, 2019, 208pp., ISBN: 9781925603842, p/bk. AUS$29.99 I don't normally do book reviews, but I've just recently finished From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage by Judith Brett, Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University,…
Vanessa Finney, Capturing Nature: Early Scientific Photography at the Australian Museum 1857-1893
Vanessa Finney, Capturing Nature: Early Scientific Photography at the Australian Museum 1857-1893 NewSouth Books, 2019, 654 pp., ISBN: 9781742234984, p/bk, AUS$49.99 Let me declare a point of self-interest before I say too much about this insightful and intriguing book. I confess to…
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…
James Phelps, Australian Heist
James Phelps, Australian Heist HarperCollins Publishers, 2018, 351 pp., ISBN: 9781460756232, h/bk, AUS$39.99 New, from one of Australia’s most popular, and prolific, true crime writers James Phelps, is Australian Heist (2018). Phelps tells the story of how a gang of bushrangers held up…