Cirrus@Austlit

' Paradise is a Place is an essay in images and words, offering a glimpse into the pleasures of being a child. Sandy Edwards' evocative photographs, taken over eight summers in the mythic landscape of the far south coast of New South Wales - amid spotted gum forests edged by sea - chronicle a young girl's passage from childhood to adolescence. Her luminous and moody portraits emphasise the vulnerability and freedom of childhood.

Novelist Gillian Mears' childhood was characterised by idyllic camps with a Field Naturalists Club on beach and mountain. Here she writes of those years with a camera's eye for detail and nuance, with the honesty and insight that mark all her work. Her essay is a meditation on innocence, memory, the act of seeing, and the particular poignancy of auntly love.' Publisher's blurb on inside of front cover.

'The women come from a range of backgrounds, from isolated and deeply traditional communities to the urban and highly technical, and pursue varied careers and interests.

Many of the stories will shock. From the first-hand experience of these women, it becomes clear that racist attitudes we may have hoped had disappered from the Australian landscape continue to flourish in many quarters.

Murrawina is a tribute to the vitality, courage and optimism of these women, and to all Australian women'.