CORIO BOOK CLUB

Stephen Murray-Smith (Cu’40) and Clem Christesen are the subjects of Jim Davidson’s dual biography Emperors in Lilliput (The Miegunyah Press, October 2022). Murray-Smith and Christesen were giants of Australian literature from the 1940s to the 1980s, serving as editors of literary journals Overland and Meanjin respectively. Davidson (who was editor of Meanjin from 1974-82) traces the commitment of Christesen and Murray-Smith to these ambitious cultural projects and how they attracted and promoted many of the key writers and thinkers of that period.

The book “unravels the double helix of Australia’s twentiethcentury literary DNA,” according to ANU Professor of History, Tom Griffiths. “By telling the stories of Clem Christesen and Stephen Murray-Smith together—and of his own experience in the middle of it all—he (Davidson) elevates this elegant portrait of two literary magazines into a deeply rewarding and searching analysis of the making of a national culture.” The book ranges from before the Menzies era and the Cold War, through the Whitlam period and beyond. It shows how the editors developed a “distinctive literary nationalism” and constantly aimed for a more liberal and diverse culture. Author, Sophie Cunningham, explained that “the genius of Emperors in Lilliput is that while the book’s focus is tight, and the research impeccable, the sweep of the story Davidson tells is both broad and deep”. In a review on The Conversation website, Melbourne University journalism lecturer, Jeff Sparrow, concluded that “the nationalist paradigm provided a basis for Christesen and Murray-Smith to privilege literary achievement: the spiritual wellbeing of the country depended, they declared, on great writers”.

Ann Andrew (Gooch, He’65) has written a history of the pioneering pastoralist Crooke family’s settlement of Gippsland, Success in Kangaroo Land: the Crooke family of ‘The Holey Plain’ (Ann Andrew, September 2022). A local historian and the author of five previous non-fiction books, Ann sourced family letters and documents dating back to Edward Crooke’s arrival in Australia in 1837 and the story of Edward and his son Edward Jolley Crooke’s settlement of the Holey Plain near Rosedale on the La Trobe River, where the latter built a large Italianate mansion in 1880. The book provides fascinating details of squatters and their battles to settle and establish agricultural land, including Edward Crooke’s often acrimonious relationship with the Lands Department. The family has a long association with Geelong Grammar School, with Edward Jolley Crooke’s twin sons Dale and Edward (Cu’31) starting at Corio in 1926 as 10-yearold boarders, having been to Glamorgan from the age of eight (prior to its acquisition by GGS in 1946). The Crooke connection with GGS extended to Edward and Dale’s children and grandchildren attending the School.

Anson Cameron (M’78) has written a biography that exposes the complexity of one of football’s toughest players. Neil Balme: A Tale of Two Men (Viking, August 2022) tells the story of Balme’s unique football journey, from infamous on-field enforcer of the 1970s to successful coach and avuncular football administrator. Balme’s colourful playing career at Richmond led to coaching appointments at Norwood, Woodville-West Torrens and Melbourne, followed by football administration roles at Collingwood, Geelong and Richmond. Along the way he has been involved in 11 premierships and earned a reputation as one of football’s sharpest minds. The Age review described the biography as “a genuine cut above usual sports writing”. “Cameron covers Balme’s playing life, his coaching and key administrative roles at various clubs, plus the impact of football on his private life with sympathy, wit (he has a great turn of phrase) and the kind of intellectual inquiry his complex subject requires.” Anson has written six novels, including the “brilliant” and hugely relevant environmental satire The Last Pulse, as well as a childhood memoir, Boyhoodlum. He writes a regular column for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers and was described as “the perfect biographer to present Neil’s story” by The Footy Almanac.

Great Properties of Tasmania is the third book in a series of sumptuous publications exploring the magnificent rural properties of Australia.

Unsurprisingly, there are significant connections with Geelong Grammar – beginning with the author Richard Allen (P’80), who has been a writer for more than 30 years and has published several books. Accompanied by the stunning photography of Melbourne-based freelance photographer, Kimbal Baker, Richard’s highly engaging portraits of 18 Tasmanian properties reveal fascinating insights into the hidden rural treasures of the Apple Isle –eight of them home to Old Geelong Grammarians.

Several families have lived in their properties for five or six generations, in Richard’s words “a demonstration of tenacity, imagination and cohesion”. Remarkably, Lachie O’Connor (P’20) is the seventh generation of his family to live at Connorville in Cressy, along with his mother Kate and father Roderic (P’74), son of Roderic (FB’44). Their ancestor, another Roderic, arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in May 1824, and by the time he died in 1860 he was the owner of 65,000 acres. Connorville now comprises 42,500 acres on which the O’Connors run Merinos and Angus cattle, breed prime lambs and grow a variety of crops. Looking to the future, one-fifth of the property is commercial native forest set aside of carbon sequestration and another one-fifth is reserved for perpetual conservation.