Cirrus@Austlit

'Darwin is the final book in the popular NewSouth cities series; previous authors have tended to be creative writers, which for the most part really suits the series' style. While Tess Lea writes with deep personal local knowledge and an enthusiastic fervour and creativity, the book might have enjoyed novelists' flair and insight. Other books in the series are, as intended, true literary non-fiction. Paul Daley's Canberra illustrates the National Capital's utter constructed otherness, its importance and its paradoxical disconnections from the pots. Matthew Condon's offering on Brisbane depicts a metropolis that palpably transforms on the page, shifting from country town to big city with all the pretensions of sophistication and modernity. The production standards for these books are extremely high and quite rightly they have been lauded and applauded for the richness, diversity and simple yam spinning. These are quintessentially Australian books geographically fixed but nationally transformative. Seen together in its entirety this is the series that I would recommend to travellers, and others curious about the land down under and her odd two legged creatures.' (Introduction)