Radical Sydney: The first month....
Radical Sydney was launched during June 2010 in Wollongong (NSW), Sydney (NSW), and Melbourne (Victoria). By the end of the month the book was listed globally on many of the world's bookselling catalogues. Prior to the launches the authors were interviewed by James Valentine on his afternoon radio show on 702 ABC (Sydney); this was a pleasant, relaxed half-hour discussion of the book, and radical history. First cab off the rank regarding publicity was veteran Sydney journalist John Huxley; on May 29 he mentioned Radical Sydney in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, describing the book as “racily written” and arguably the best of a bunch of forthcoming books about the less-known stories of Sydney’s past. He was followed in The Australian (June 5) by prominent historian Ross Fitzgerald who described Radical Sydney as “excellent….interesting, revealing and crispily written”. On the website of the Better Read Than Dead Bookstore (Newtown, Sydney), Chris awarded the book “five out of five”.

The Maritime Union of Australia featured Radical Sydney on its website (June 17), drawing attention to the book's empathetic treatment of maritime workers and their unions; the June 22 (2010) issue of the Daily Telegraph (Sydney) featured an edited extract from the book on its regular History Page. In the NSW Legislative Council, June 23, the Hon. Ian West MLC cited and drew from Radical Sydney during an address on the history of fascism in Australia and on the fragility of our democratic freedoms.

The three launches were successful events and generated exciting sales, especially the gleebooks (Sydney) event which involved an audience of some 130 people; the venue was packed, standing room only. The Melbourne launch took the format of a discussion of the topic ‘Writing Radical History’; in this the authors were joined by Overland editor Jeff Sparrow (co-author of the two Radical Melbourne books) and veteran labour historian Peter Love. An enthusiastic audience in the Trades Hall venue ensured a lively evening of comment and debate on what was otherwise a very cold Melbourne night. A few days earlier (15 June) Jeff had cited Radical Sydney over on New Matilda in defence of literary journals and the communal nature of reading.

Community radio showed interest in Radical Sydney, with Rowan doing a half-hour interview about the book on Highland FM (NSW) on 31 May, and Terry doing a similar gig on 3CR Melbourne, June 30.

For the record: Radical Sydney was launched in Sydney at gleebooks by Lee Rhiannon MLC, Sunday 20 June 2010; in Wollongong it was launched by Arthur Rorris, Secretary of the South Coast Labour Council, on Tuesday 15 June 2010, in store at the UniShop, Wollongong University campus; in Melbourne a discussion (and launch) was held on the theme "Writing Radical History" with Terry Irving, Rowan Cahill, Jeff Sparrow, and Peter Love moderating, at New International Bookshop, Trades Hall, Wednesday 16 June.

This post is part of Radical Sydney Diary, an account of the first year-and-a-half in the life of the book Radical Sydney. See side panel.