Cirrus@Austlit

'I remember my first encounter with history well. I was young. I can’t quite recall my age, but I was young enough to believe myself old for having such grown up things as a white-and-pink Spice Girls backpack and matching T-shirt. Frilly lace socks were cool, Sailor Moon pigtails and buns were a fashion statement, dunkaroos were the envy of all Australian school lunch boxes and I was on holiday. As Mum ushered me and my sister into our beat-up, once-white Ford Falcon, I had no idea that we were heading far beyond our tiny Northern Beaches flat, let alone back in time.' (Introduction)