Old North Melbourne, by Fiona Gatt

North Melbourne’s First Fifty Years

Fiona Gatt’s history of the inner city suburb of North Melbourne covers its first fifty years, from the 1850s through to 1900. The area has long been noted for its working class roots, and Gatt provides the data to show it was a refuge for the poor and unskilled. Notable was the strong presence of the Irish working class, often living precariously and on intermittent wages. Due to the hardships of the times, alcohol abuse was prevalent, a way of dulling life’s miseries. An extraordinary amount of pubs - seemingly one on every corner - littered the area. 

It wasn’t all desperate living, however. North Melbourne had its captains of industry, creating businesses and factories, and many were successful, also putting themselves forward in civic life and contributing to the suburb’s politics. Gatt also shows that a large percentage of women were successful at business, running shops or industries from home. Of note was local feminist Brettena Smyth, who agitated for women’s right to vote and make their own reproductive choices.

North Melbourne evolved in a haphazard way during this period. There was no building code, so people simply knocked up whatever they felt fit - in a lot of cases tin sheds or shoddily put together wooden houses, not built to last. It wasn’t until the 1890s that building codes would be introduced. Street life could also be hazardous, especially with the rise of larikinism during economic hard times - swarms of bored male youths stirring up trouble. Sometimes it wasn’t safe to leave the house.

Old North Melbourne is a fascinating, meticulously researched history that chronicles North Melbourne’s economic, cultural and topographical roots. North Melbournites will be charmed to see recognisable street names pop up again and again. 

A welcome addition to the historic literature on Melbourne.

Old North Melbourne, by Fiona Gatt. Published by Australian Scholarly Publishing. $44. 

OCT 2025

Lady Living Alone, by Norah Lofts

A woman too frightened to be alone comes to regret the company she keeps.

Norah Lofts (1904-1983) was a British writer who specialised in historical fiction, but wrote occasional nail biting thrillers under the pseudonym Peter Curtis. Lady Living Alone was first published in 1945 and here gets a new printing from the British Library Women Writers series. 

Penelope Shadow is temperamentally fragile, almost timid. She’s not cut out for the practicalities of life and is a bit of a dreamer. One area of her life where she’s fully competent, however, is as a novelist. After a few false starts, she begins churning out best selling fiction. The money is soon coming in. But there is one problem. A single woman, she is forced to move out of her half-sister’s house and find her own accommodation. She has the money to buy a handsome house of her own, but is terrified of being alone in it. It’s her achilles heel. To try and assuage her fears, she hires staff, women to look after the housework, but they tend to leave. 

Then Penelope meets the young Irishman, Terence Munce. He is working as a menial at a rooming house she stays at. In a rash moment she asks him to come and work for her. Everything turns out smoothly. Penelope is back to hammering away at her typewriter, while the ever attentive Terry takes care of everything. Things take an unexpected turn when Terry professes to love Penelope and the two get married. All is well in this new if surprising arrangement, until Terry starts draining Penelope’s purse of funds at a great rate of knots. Ever forgiving, she makes allowances for Terry, until secrets emerge about her husband’s life and Penelope feels her life is imperilled.

Lady Living Alone is a solidly written domestic drama about a vulnerable and too eager-to-please woman and her young, seemingly perfect but scheming husband. The tension is wonderfully sustained right up to the last page and the novel gives vivid glimpses of life in 1930s Britain (the book is set in the previous decade to which it was published). The steadily darkening plot will remind readers of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca and Elizabeth Von Arnim’s Vera, two novels about duplicitious, villainous husbands. 

A sturdy, page-turning thriller with valuable insights into British society in the 1930s.

Lady Living Alone, by Norah Lofts. Published by British Library Publishing. $22.99

OCT 2025

Suspicion, by Seicho Matsumoto

A beautiful woman with a violent past is accused of killing her husband. But did she really do it?

Onizuka Kumako has a shady past. She hangs out with the local yakuza (crime gang) and has done prison time for stealing and assault. She has an imposing, almost glamorous look, and instills fear in those who have to deal with her. When she meets rich and lonely widower Shirakawa Fukutaro, the two are soon married. Then the unimaginable happens. One rainy night their car veers off course and into the harbour. The husband dies, but the wife manages to escape. But how? Many questions surround the case and the media has whipped up a storm of theories, all pointing the blame at Onizuka Kumako. It’s clear she’s guilty, or is she?

At the head of these efforts to convict Kumako is Moichi Akitani, a jumpy, nervous journalist who is terrified at the prospect of her release. A freed Kumako, he is sure, would turn the yakuza onto him and his family. As he endlessly ruminates on the possibility of the suspect’s innocence, he whips himself up into a near frenzy of fear. 

First published in 1982, this short Japanese thriller is translated for the first time into English. Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992) is a hugely influential figure in Japanese literature, credited with popularising the crime genre in Japan. In this moody and taut novella, the pace never relents. Its psychological aspects, specifically the sharp portraits of the journalist Moichi Akitani and several lawyers working on the case, make for compelling fiction. The central character, Onizuka Kumako, who the reader never meets directly but is described by those in her orbit, hovers like a menacing presence, both attractive and repulsive. The only criticism that can be levelled at this gut-wrenching crime tale is that it ends too quickly.

Translated by Jesse Kirkwood

Suspicion, by Seicho Matsumoto. Published by Penguin. $28.99

SEP 25

Tree. Table. Book., by Lois Lowry

When an elderly neighbour suffering memory loss is to be put into care, her eleven-year-old neighbour stages an intervention.

Sophie Winslow is eleven-years-old, and her best friend Sophie Gershowitz is 88-years-old. They are neighbors and greatly enjoy each other’s company. If only life could go on as it always has, but changes are afoot. Sophie’s son, Aaron, is concerned about her failing memory and is planning to move her into assisted care. The younger Sophie is alarmed at this, and hatches a plan to prove Sophie Gershowitz’s memory is just fine. She starts to test Sophie’s memory, making her create memorable stories around particular words. And so the younger Sophie starts to learn about Sophie Gershowitz’s traumatic childhood in Poland during the Second World War. 

Lois Lowry is an award winning American children’s author. Tree. Table. Book. is a gentle story about painful change. It has a light tone with comic touches, coming in the form of Sophie’s friend Ralpie and seven-year-old mini-genius Oliver who they often look after. Realistic and full of heart, this is a story that celebrates life - the bitter and the sweet.

Tree. Table. Book., by Lois Lowry. Published by HarperCollins. $17.99

SEP 25

A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir, by Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern's insightful and revealing memoir.

Jacinda Ardern was raised a Mormon but grew more and more at odds with her church’s teachings. How could she be pro gay rights and abortion and yet keep faith with her religious upbringing? Ardern loved the church and its people, but this tension between personal belief and religious moral codes would cause an identity crisis. Who was she? Painfully, after much struggle Ardern left her faith and became a warrior for progressive politics. That road was not an easy one. Filled with self-doubts and more than susceptible to imposter syndrome, New Zealand’s future prime minister was nudged, almost pushed, into leadership roles. It was a surprise for the reluctant politician to find herself prime minister, but once there, she hoped to govern with kindness and compassion.
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A Different Kind of Power is indeed a different kind of political memoir. It tells a story of vulnerability and inner-conflict, rather than a myth-making march to power. The book is refreshingly devoid of ego and political preaching, and offers an array of surprising insights told with clarity and humour. Jacinda Ardern’s memoir opens a fresh window on the possibilities of politics beyond the usual grind of point scoring and confected conflict.  

A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir, by Jacinda Ardern. Published by Penguin. $55

SEP 25

The Dilemmas of Working Women, by Fumio Yamamoto

A quirky and enjoyable collection of five tales.

In 2001 Japanese writer Fumio Yamamoto won the Naoki Prize in literature for The Dilemmas of Working Women, a collection of five novellas each about sixty pages long. English readers can now enjoy this Japanese classic some twenty-five years after it was first published in this enjoyable translation by Brian Bergstrom.

Each of the stories in this collection concentrates on a woman’s financial and emotional dilemmas. Izumi bounces around job prospects while hooking up with an old work buddy; Haruka is recovering from cancer surgery but finds those around her impatient with her inability to move on; Kato works at a convenience store and must negotiate tricky workplace politics; Mito has a complicated relationship with her boyfriend and Sumie is a free spirit who reads fortunes. 

Fumio Yamamoto writes in a simple, addictive prose about everyday struggles: wanting to be understood, trying to find meaningful work, figuring out if a relationship is worth pursuing, coping with difficult family members. There is an existential quality to Yamamoto’s work, as her characters cycle through relationships, career choices and social roles looking in vain to establish meaning in their lives. A welcome addition to Japanese fiction in translation. 

The Dilemmas of Working Women, by Fumio Yamamoto. Published by Virago. $32.99

SEP 25

Murder at the Castle: A Miss Merkel Mystery, by David Safier

Angela Merkel makes her fictional debut as village sleuth in this good natured cozy crime series.

Angela Merkel, ex-German Chancellor, has retired to the rural village of Klein-Freudenstadt (“little happy town”). After years of gruelling public service, she’s looking forward to creating a new life for herself with husband Achim and their little pug, Putin. As the couple make tentative steps to merge with the local community, attending wine festivals and markets, they find themselves at the centre of a murder mystery. Baron von Baugenwitz, owner of the village castle, has been found slumped over a table dead in the dungeon. Angela, who is used to solving problems, can’t resist this one, despite the need for her to keep a low profile due to her political past. As the mystery proceeds, a cast of suspects is introduced: an angry ex-wfie, an angry current wife, a surly, wise-cracking daughter, a cop, a far-right fruit seller and a tour guide. Danger is ever present, however, and Angela must evade an angry killer who knows she is on their tail.

Murder at the Castle is the first in a cozy crime series by German author David Safier. Readers may wonder how credible a fictionalised Angela Merkel would be, but Safier does an admirable job of creating a likable yet slightly offbeat ex-Chancellor. The novel is mostly an affectionate portrait of a devoted middle-aged couple, structured around a classic whodunnit. The plot is interwoven with plenty of humour, references to Merkel’s political career and some 18th century German history. All up, a warm hearted, entertaining frolic.  

Translated by Jamie Bulloch

Murder at the Castle: A Miss Merkel Mystery, by David Safier. Published by HarperCollins. $32.99

August 2025