Martyn Lyons

Dear Prime Minister: Letters to Robert Menzies, 1949–1966 by Martyn Lyons

January–February 2022, no. 439

Letter writing thrives on distance. Out of necessity, in the early years of European settlement, Australia became a nation of letter writers. The remoteness of the island continent gave the letter a special importance. Even those unused to writing had so much to say, and such a strong need to hear from home, that the laborious business of pen and ink and the struggles with spelling were overcome. Early letters reflected the homesickness of settlers as well as their sense of achievement and their need to hold on to a former life. It’s possible to see the emergence of a democratic tradition of letter writing in those needful times. Rich or poor, well educated or semi-literate, they all felt the urge to connect.

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In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon's Wars, 1793-1815 by Jenny Uglow

by Martyn Lyons •

May 2015, no. 371

Martyn Lyons reviews 'In These Times' by Jenny Uglow

If you had asked anyone in the 1780s where in Europe a revolution was most likely to break out, the answer would probably have been Britain. Paris was too strictly policed to be a candidate, whereas London had recently been the scene of violent anti-Catholic riots. The British were an unruly people, as Jenny Uglow’s book on British life during the French revolutio ...

The Writing Culture of Ordinary People in Europe, c.1860–1920 by Martyn Lyons

by Paul Pickering •

December 2013–January 2014, no. 357

Paul Pickering reviews 'The Writing Culture of Ordinary People in Europe, c.1860–1920' by Martyn Lyons

‘If in this I have been tedious,’ admitted William Cowper in a letter published in 1750, ‘it may be some excuse, I had not time to make it shorter.’ In The Writing Culture of Ordinary People in Europe, c.1860–1920, Martyn Lyons has accomplished what Cowper could not. This is a short book but withal it successfully tackles an expansive agenda. It is in no way tedious. Indeed, it is an excellent book – ambitious and thought-provoking – and deserving of an equally large audience within the academy and beyond it.

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Australian Cultural History, Volume 11: Books, Readers, Reading edited by David Walker, Julia Hornen and Martyn Lyons

by Sue Murray •

September 1992, no. 144

It is refreshing to find an approach to literature that largely avoids traditional methods of discourse. Books, Readers, Reading is a compilation of essays from an Australian Cultural History Conference held in June 1991 and it encompasses subjects as diverse as Bible reading, a history of Australia’s first paperbacks and circulating libraries.

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