Penny Russell

Penny Russell is a historian of families, intimacy, and social encounters in nineteenth-century Australia, with a longstanding interest in the intricacies of gender, class, race, and culture in colonial societies. Her books include (with Nigel Worden) Honourable Intentions? Violence and virtue in Australian and cape colonies, c.1750 to 1850 (Routledge, 2016) and Savage or Civilised? Manners in colonial Australia (NewSouth, 2010). Penny is a Professor Emerita at The University of Sydney.

Penny Russell reviews 'Moving Stories: An Intimate History of Four Women Across Two Countries' by Alistair Thomson

September 2011, no. 334 • 23 August 2011

Gwen Good’s migration to Perth in 1963 turned out well. She loved Australia, the climate that turned life into one long summer holiday, and the house that she and her family soon acquired. She was an active member of her church, and a contented wife and mother who revelled in her children. By the 1980s she was ready to give away the bundle of reel-to-reel tapes on which, decades before, the fami ... (read more)