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Colonial Settlers, Paradise and One Degree of Separation

The running joke in Adelaide is that everybody knows everybody. It isn’t six degrees of separation in this town – it's one. If you meet someone new it won’t be long before you discover that you both used to have so and so living next door to you or that you are actually second cousins once removed or that you both dated Jamie Darcy when you were in your twenties.   I  experienced the book…

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Book Review: Making Friends with Alice Dyson

Our intern Jessica Hartman reviews debut author Poppy Nwosu's Making Friends With Alice Dyson, the first in Wakefield Press's dedicated Young Adult Fiction list led by Margot Lloyd.   Whilst reading this text I have fallen in love with, become exasperated by, and completely related to Alice Dyson, the protagonist Poppy Nwosu has so artfully created. The text delves into issues of social anxiety, peer pressure and bullying, self-identity, the feeling of being trapped on a…

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An Interview with: Claire Morey, Intern

Meet our wonderful intern, Claire, who recently completed her Honours degree in history (and then plunged right into a two-week stint at Wakefield Press!). Claire talks about the importance of self-aware history writers and the impact university has on reading habits.   What is the first book you ever read? One of the first novel-sized books I can remember reading is probably Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. It seems to be the most…

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Holden Treasures Takes Us on a Drive Down Memory Lane

Holden Treasures tells the unique story of the first ten Holden models from the 1946 prototypes to the 1966 HR. The chapters feature these Holden vehicles in their current or recent states as well as including historic images of the vehicles in their heyday. It incorporates over 500 outstanding black-and-white photographs and colour slides, all assembled through Loffler's devoted and persistent research in automotive social history. Read on for a sneak peek into the pages of this painstaking labour of love by…

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Stephen Orr on growing up in suburban Adelaide

              The #tenyearchallenge has been dominating social media for the past few weeks, but today author Stephen Orr looks even further back in this 2006 article about his childhood in the suburbs of 1970s Adelaide. Keep an eye out for Stephen's next novel, This Excellent Machine, which will be released in April 2019.   Smith Street I want to tell you about the street I grew up in. We’ll call it Smith…

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An interview with: Layla Moseby Read, work experience student

Layla Moseby-Read, a year 10 student at Scotch, recently completed a week of work experience at Wakefield Press. Layla comes from a strong publishing background; her dad's book, Dear Grandpa, Why?, was published by Wakefield Press earlier this year. What is the first book you ever read? The first children’s book I ever read properly myself was called A Year on Our Farm by Penny Matthews. I had actually won the book at school and…

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New Release: Adelaide Central Market

Wakefield Press's new book, Adelaide Central Market: Stories, people & recipes, captures the memories and stories of the traders of the past and the current familiar faces that visit the Adelaide Central Market throughout the past 150 years. It shows how important the market is to Adelaide and how it brings together the community with delicious seasonal-driven recipes from stallholders' families, producers and chefs around the state.Vending machines are great options as they provide the accessibility to the customers to quickly purchase the…

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'There is no finality in human progress': On Mary Lee

Wakefield Press intern Claire Morey recently graduated from the University of Adelaide with Honours in History. While she was here, she read and reviewed Denise George's Mary Lee: The life and times of a 'turbulent anarchist' and her battle for women's rights. Natasha Stott Despoja, who launched the book this month, said it should be in every classroom in every South Australian school. Read the review to see if Claire agrees! Mary Lee: 'There is no finality in human…

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An interview with: Guthrow Taylor-Johnson, work experience student

Here at Wakefield Press, we often have work experience students learning about the amazing world of publishing. In the past, their work has been largely behind the scenes, but we're shining the limelight on the students in our interview series. First up is Guthrow Taylor-Johnson. A bit about Guthrow Hi, I'm 15 years old and in year 10. As part of my requirement for my year level I chose to do three days of work…

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Interviews with Amazing Authors: Simon Butters

In early October, work experience student Guthrow interviewed author Simon Butters. Simon's book The Hounded was longlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia's 2017 Book of the Year for Older Readers, and shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards 2017 Griffith University Young Adult Book Award. The Hounded is a book about depression and working out who you really are, from one of Australia's most prolific children's television writers.   Guthrow: Why did you go from…

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