Melbourne

A year in Melbourne's city life told in diary form, this contemporary and personal portrait depicts major events from the Australian heat wave, which culminated in more than 400 bushfires, to the destructive deluge of a hailstorm. While walking through Melbourne's oldest suburb to its largest market, experiencing an Australian Rules Football game, and attending the comedy festival, writer Sophie Cunningham journeys deep into her own recollections of the city she grew up in, and tells stories from its history. She strolls by Melbourne's rivers and creeks and considers the history of the wetlands and river that sit at Melbourne's heart, for it is water--the corralling of it, the excess of it, the squandering of it, the lack of it--that defines Melbourne's history, its present, and its future.

Sophie Cunningham is the former editor of Meanjin Quarterly and a former publisher for Allen & Unwin, Penguin, and McPhee Gribble. She is the author of Bird and Geography and her work has been included in The Best Australian Essays 2000 and The Best Australian Fiction.