Richmond:

Richmond before & after Struggletown

28 June 2021 | Living

Struggletown, Janet McCalman’s award winning classic study of ‘Public & Private Life in Richmond 1900–1965’ has recently come out in a new edition from Melbourne University Press: • 'The old Struggletowners, if they could see it now, would not believe their...

View Post

Melbourne – Cars, Restaurants, Coathangers

5 June 2021 | Living

Locked down in Melbourne I’ve been pedaling my bicycle around and thinking about places with – for me – a Melbourne history. I’ve lived in Melbourne for far too long, a lot of those years in Richmond, a ‘suburb’ which went from Struggletown – I’m reading that book at ...

View Post

Richmond, Struggletown & Modern Architecture

16 February 2018 | Living

A large chunk of my life in Melbourne, Australia was spent in Richmond. Maureen and I lived in a rented house in Richmond from 1976, then bought it for A$20,500 in 1980, renovated it and lived in it until 1988 when we sold it for $144,000. At that time it was the high...

View Post

Detroit – a place to be on its last days?

4 July 2013 | Media

I’ve just read Mark Binelli’s superb book about the decline and fall – and perhaps rebirth – of Detroit. Mark has written for Rolling Stone and indeed this reads like a Rolling Stone page turner, a tale of alternate shock and awe. There’s a great line about using Detr...

View Post

Dolman Award Books – Take 4

15 July 2012 | Media

And now my 4th batch of Dolman Award books, we’re working our way towards the ‘short list’ from which we’ll pick the winner at Hatchards Bookshop on Piccadilly in London on 5 September. Click here for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd batches of books. Harlem is Nowhere by Shar...

View Post