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Grantlee Kieza, Mrs Kelly: The Astonishing Life of Ned Kelly’s Mother
Grantlee Kieza Mrs Kelly: The Astonishing Life of Ned Kelly’s Mother HarperCollins Publishers (ABC Books), 2017, 624 pp., ISBN: 9780733331572, h/bk, AUS$39.99 Bestselling author Grantlee Kieza’s latest work, Mrs Kelly: The Astonishing Life of Ned Kelly’s Mother, is a biography of Ellen Kelly (c1832-1923). Although ostensibly documenting the life of Mrs Ellen…
The Other Moderns: Sydney’s Forgotten European Design Legacy
Edited by Rebecca Hawcroft, The Other Moderns: Sydney’s Forgotten European Design Legacy, NewSouth Publishing, 2017, 352 pp., ISBN: 9781742235561, p/bk, AUS$49.99 Rebecca Hawcroft, a cultural heritage consultant, has brought together some of Australia’s most important commentators on culture and design for The Other…
John Newton, The Oldest Foods on Earth: A History of Australian Native Foods
John Newton, The Oldest Foods on Earth: A History of Australian Native Foods NewSouth, 304 pp., ISBN: 9781742234373, p/bk, AUS$29.99 The Oldest Foods on Earth: A History of Australian Native Foods (2016), from NewSouth Books, is John Newton’s vehicle for a 50,000-year…
Terry Smyth, Denny Day: The Life and Times of Australia’s Greatest Lawman
Terry Smyth, Denny Day: The Life and Times of Australia’s Greatest Lawman Ebury Press, 2016, 352 pp., ISBN: 9780857986825, p/bk, AUS$34.99 Award-winning writer Terry Smyth has taken on the extraordinary, and regularly overlooked, story of Edward Denny Day in Denny Day: The…
Ross Gibson, The Criminal Re-Register
Ross Gibson, The Criminal Re-Register The University of Western Australia Publishing, 2017, 152 pp., ISBN: 9781742589558, p/bk, AUS$22.99 Ross Gibson’s new work, The Criminal Re-Register (2017) from University of Western Australia Publishing, is a fabulous re-imagining of a mid-twentieth century copy of a…
Catherine Jinks, Charlatan The Dishonest Life and Dishonoured Loves of Thomas Guthrie Carr, Stage Mesmerist
Catherine Jinks, Charlatan The Dishonest Life and Dishonoured Loves of Thomas Guthrie Carr, Stage Mesmerist Vintage Books, Penguin Random House Australia, North Sydney, 2017, pp 1-256 (plus notes), ISBN: 978 0 14378 554 5 Between 1865 and 1886 Thomas Guthrie Carr was…
Pip Smith, Half Wild
Pip Smith, Half Wild Allen & Unwin, 2017, ISBN: 9781760294649, pp1-390 During the winter of 1920, Sydney was gripped by the spectacularly scandalous story of Eugenia Falleni. Falleni had for many years pretended to be a man called Harry Crawford. Harry was…
Paul Irish, Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal People of Coastal Sydney
Paul Irish, Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal People of Coastal Sydney NewSouth Publishing, (May) 2017, ISBN 9781742235110, pp 1-149 pages, plus scholarly apparatus and Index, (pp. 150-207) Formats: Paperback, ebook, ePDF Walking along the foreshores of Rozelle Bay and Black Wattle Bay in Sydney’s…
David Stephens and Alison Broinowski (eds) The Honest History Book
David Stephens and Alison Broinowski (eds) The Honest History Book, NewSouth Publishing, 2017, pp1-344, ISBN 9781742235264 (paperback) ‘Australia is more than Anzac – and always has been.’[1] The Honest History Book, recently published by NewSouth, is a compelling, at times confronting and yet convincing…
Louis Nowra, Woolloomooloo, A Biography,
Louis Nowra, Woolloomooloo, A Biography New South Publishing, University of New South Wales, 2017, pp1-334, ISBN 9781742234953 (paperback) Local histories of suburbs or villages can be yawningly dull and somewhat parochial. What is of interest and deep meaning to the writer is…