The Marvellous Funambulist of Middle Harbour and Other Sydney Firsts

This whimsical, witty history of Sydney will entertain and inform children like nothing else they’ve seen! Through a series of (unexpected) ‘firsts’, Hilary Bell and Matthew Martin trace the events, people and places that have shaped their city, however unintentionally. Where else will you find Sydney’s first traffic light sharing pages with its first tightrope walk across Middle Harbour? (And just so you know, it was performed by the marvellous funambulist Henri L’Estrange in 1877.)

Hilary Bell is the co-creator, with illustrator Antonia Pesenti, of Alphabetical Sydney and Numerical Street. She is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been produced, published and translated around the world. Hilary also works as a mentor and dramaturge, and as a playwriting teacher. Matthew Martin is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in publications all over the world, including The New Yorker, Time, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, The New York Times, The Times in London and The Sydney Morning Herald. He has exhibited widely and has been a finalist in the Dobell Prize for Drawing.