A Distant Prospect – ISBN 9780987435101

Sydney

Lucy’s leg callipers gave this Great War veteran an opening for the black humour that helped him cope with his lost mobility. ‘I got mine at Bellicourt. Where’d you get yours?’ he asked me when I shook his hand, and he indicated my legs with a raise of an eyebrow […]

Music for war veterans

August 3, 2014 in Mrs Epstein / Music / North Sydney / Suffering / War by francis

Balmoral Beach 1929, Samuel Wood. Public domain. — Picturesque Balmoral Beach is one of Annette Young’s special places. Balmoral was a friendly alcove with waves that delighted in whispering secrets to the sand. Benny greeted his lady friend on the promenade and left us to set up our own picnic which we chose to do on the beach. […]

Balmoral Beach picnic, 1928

May 10, 2014 in Annette / Balmoral / Polio / Sydney by francis

Lucy here describes her home in County Galway, which she fled aged 8 in 1921, and how it compares to the house which her da found for them in Sydney’s Newtown. ‘It was a little four room cottage with a thatched roof and a hearth. A kitchen there was in […]

An Irish girl in a strange land

March 16, 2014 in Irish / Lucy Straughan / Newtown / Sydney by francis

St Patrick’s Day vs Empire Week – Erin go braugh!

March 13, 2014 in Della Sotheby / Irish / Lucy Straughan / Newtown by francis

The vibrant cultural scene in December 1928 saw at least five performances of Handel’s Messiah in Sydney Town Hall, so of course Annette Young wrote one into A Distant Prospect! The first Messiah to raise the roof was by the 600-voice Welsh Choral Society on 8 December, repeating its success […]

Christmas isn’t Christmas without Handel’s Messiah

December 21, 2013 in Lucy Straughan / Music / Sydney by francis

In 1928, the arches of the Bridge were still two years from meeting, but already this massive undertaking was a sign of confidence for a hopeful future, one worthy of such a mighty public work. In A Distant Prospect its slow but inexorable progress symbolises the hope of a better […]

Sydney Harbour Bridge

November 19, 2013 in Lucy Straughan / Morgan Straughan / Sydney by francis

Della Sotheby’s high society mother always stayed up to date, so The Home magazine was essential to her thoroughly modern household. Quoting a 1929 advertisement: “The Home is the one authority in Australia in matters of good taste and has come to be recognised as one of the finest journals […]

The Home Magazine (1920-1942)

August 23, 2013 in Art / Della Sotheby / Sydney by francis

Annette Young at Sydney Moderns, Art Gallery of NSW, 23 August 2013 — Until October 7, catch Sydney moderns, art for a new world at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, showcasing art and photography from the 1920s and 1930s. Featuring the iconic The Bridge in-curve 1930, by Grace Cossington Smith, which is also the cover art of A Distant Prospect, the […]

Sydney Moderns at the Art Gallery of NSW

July 7, 2013 in Art / Events / Morgan Straughan / Sydney by francis

In A Distant Prospect, first violinist Della Sotheby’s brother Wally plays club cricket for Balmain. In December 1928, England thrashed Australia in the Second Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The SCG crowd of 58,446 at the 1928 Sydney Ashes Test is a ground record which still stands today. […]

1928 Sydney Ashes Cricket Test

January 29, 2013 in Cricket / Sydney / Wally Sotheby by francis

Sydney Conservatorium of Music

January 27, 2013 in Music / Sydney by francis

“You ain’t heard nuthin’ yet!” Sydney audiences broke all box office records in late December 1928 when The Jazz Singer opened at the Lyceum, and The Red Dance opened at the Regent. In a week these two cinemas took £8,500! In November 1928, Western Electric engineers had installed Fox Movietone […]

The Jazz Singer and Sydney’s 1928 talkie war

December 25, 2012 in Sydney by francis

1920s Sydney had the largest network of tramways in the Southern Hemisphere, with 1600 tramcars running daily on 291 km of tram lines. This amazing video clip shows trams shifting 1000 passengers per minute at the end of the final race of the 1928 Sydney Cup meeting at Randwick Racecourse.

Janette Beard’s fascinatingly detailed 1983 Sydney University thesis Newtown 1892-1922: A Social Sketch became a valuable roadmap for researching life in 1920s Newtown, where Lucy lives. It was quite a fashionable place to live, and King Street became the first important shopping strip outside the city. Newtown retail advertising in […]

Newtown 1892-1922: A Social Sketch

November 10, 2012 in Newtown / Sydney by francis