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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…
Sam Willis and James Daybell, Histories of the Unexpected: how everything has a history
Sam Willis and James Daybell, Histories of the Unexpected: how everything has a history Atlantic Books, 2018, 465pp., ISBN: 9781786494122, (h/bk), AUS$39.99 Histories of the Unexpected: how everything has a history, by British celebrity historians Sam Willis and James Daybell, is based…
Stephen Knight, Australian Crime Fiction: a 200-year history
Stephen Knight, Australian Crime Fiction: a 200-year history McFarland Books, 2018, 301pp., ISBN: 9781476670867 (p/bk), US$45.00 Stephen Knight’s new work Australian Crime Fiction: a 200-year history is a re-working and critical updating of his seminal text Continent of Mystery: a thematic history of Australian…
The Sprite of the Creek
Illustrated Sydney News November 29 1879, p4 via Trove It's Halloween, so in keeping with the season, today we're sharing a very Sydney ghost story. Join Dictionary of Sydney special guest Dr Rachel Franks and host Jess Klajman around the 2SER…
John Newton, The Getting of Garlic: Australian Food from Bland to Brilliant
John Newton, The Getting of Garlic: Australian Food from Bland to Brilliant NewSouth Books, 352 pp., ISBN: 9781742235790, p/bk, AUS$32.99 John Newtown's new book The Getting of Garlic: Australian Food from Bland to Brilliant is an impressive follow up to his 2016…
Jacqueline Kent, A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life
Jacqueline Kent, A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life (Second Edition) NewSouth Books, 347 pp., ISBN: 9781742236025, p/bk, AUS$34.99 Award-winning writer Jacqueline Kent’s highly-acclaimed work A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life (2018) is now available in an updated second…
Adam Courtenay, The Ship That Never Was: The Greatest Escape Story of Australian Colonial History
Adam Courtenay, The Ship That Never Was: The Greatest Escape Story of Australian Colonial History HarperCollins Publishers (ABC Books), 323 pp., ISBN: 978073333857, p/bk, AUS$29.99 In a genuine example of fact is stranger than fiction, journalist Adam Courtenay's book The Ship That…
The murder of Joseph Luker
Smith's Weekly, 28 February 1920, p17 via Trove This morning on 2SER Breakfast, Dr Rachel Franks talked to Tess Connery about Australia's oldest cold case, the murder of Constable Joseph Luker, who was the first police officer killed in the line…
Gideon Haigh, A Scandal in Bohemia: The Life and Death of Mollie Dean
Gideon Haigh, A Scandal in Bohemia: The Life and Death of Mollie Dean Penguin / Hamish Hamilton, 310 pp., ISBN: 9780143789574, p/bk, AUS$32.99 Journalist Gideon Haigh is well-known for his engaging full-length works on cricket, business histories and, more recently, his histories…
Jane Lydon and Lyndall Ryan (eds), Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre
Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre, edited by Jane Lydon and Lyndall Ryan NewSouth Books, 215 pp., ISBN: 9781742235752, p/bk, RRP AUS$34.99 On 10 June 1838 twelve men, “in an unprovoked act of violent terror” (p. xi), committed an atrocity known today as the…