Sydney A biography (new ed)

by Nowra, Louis

• ISBN13: 9781761170324
• ISBN10: 1761170325
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2024-10-01
• Publisher: NewSouth

Summary

In Sydney, acclaimed playwright and writer Louis Nowra – author of Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo – expands his gaze to explore the energy, beauty, vulgarity, dynamism and pulsating sense of self-importance of his adopted city. This big, bustling portrait of Sydney is told through a cast of criminals and premiers, ordinary folk, entertainers, artists, thieves and visionaries. Along with its people Nowra surveys the city’ s landscape, its architecture, and its global identity. And as Sydney’ s history unfolds throughout the twentieth century and beyond, Nowra revels in its neon lights, music, skyscrapers, sense of optimism and the many disparate elements that shape Sydneysiders’ view of themselves.

Author Biography

Louis Nowra is a playwright, novelist, essayist and screen-writer. Some of his plays are Inner Voices, The Golden Age, Inside the Island, The Boyce Trilogy, Radiance and The Lewis Trilogy (Summer of the Aliens, Così , This Much is True). Screen credits include Map of the Human Heart, Radiance, Black and White, Heaven’ s Burning, K-19: The Widowmaker and Così . His novels are The Misery of Beauty, Palu, Red Nights, Abaza and Ice. He has written two memoirs, The Twelfth of Never and Shooting the Moon. With Mandy Sayer, he co-edited the influential anthology about Kings Cross, In the Gutter … Looki

Table of Contents

AUTHOR’ S NOTE PROLOGUE LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION THE DISPOSSESSION ALBION HERE SHE COMES! SURVIVING THE DISTANCE OF YOUR HEART THE NEW SKYLINE: FRANCIS GREENWAY MORTDALE, AKA VALLEY OF THE DEAD SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF CONVICTS THE CULT OF THE BODY PLOTTING SYDNEY’ S DESTRUCTION OLD SYDNEY TOWN HOWLING AT THE MOON A NEW BEGINNING THE WATERY HEART OF SYDNEY DISTRACTIONS THE SHAME OF CLONTARF PICTURES OF SYDNEY RIDDING SYDNEY OF THE BIRTHSTAIN THE TRAGEDY OF THE DUNBAR SYDNEY CREATES ITSELF HOW A DYNASTY ENDS: THE FAIRFAXES HYDE PARK NORTH THE WORLD COMES TO SYDNEY THE DIVIDED CITY A YOUNG WOMAN’ S WORLD IN THE 1890s THE PLAGUE THE DOMAIN, THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND DRINK A DAY IN CONCORD ON THE BEACH THE GOLDEN TWENTIES THE DREAM WEAVERS THE 1930s THE COATHANGER THE WAR COMES TO SYDNEY THE 1950s THE PUSH FLAT LIFE THE ASKIN ERA OF THE 1960s RED LIGHTS UNDERCURRENTS REMAKING SYDNEY’ S SKYLINE: HARRY SEIDLER THE PACKERS HYDE PARK SOUTH THE HEDONIST DECADE THIS SMALL BLOCK OF DARLINGHURST A GLOBAL CITY NOW NOTES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS