Hels

I received this email here at work and thought there might be some people that come to this site that might be interested in either the launch or just the book once it hits the shelves.

Hels





Ten Pound Poms: Australia’s Invisible Migrants:

A Life History of Postwar British Emigration to Australia by A.James Hammerton and Alistair Thomson

(Manchester University Press, distributed by Footprint Books)



About the Book:


‘It wasn’t until I read this wonderful book that I realized how little had been written on the experiences of British postwar emigrants to Australia. My own vivid recollection of arriving as an 11 year old in our new home on a bleak July day in 1959 and the subsequent experiences could well have come from the pages of this book. Before long I was transported back to the austere concrete and corrugated iron of the migrant hostel – a familiar yet somehow strange experience of life in a far corner of the British Empire. This is a “must read’� for anyone who shared this emigration experience or whose families were part of it.’
<Mike Brady : Musician and Broadcaster>

More than a million Britons emigrated to Australia between the 1940s and 1970s. They were the famous 'ten pound Poms' and this is their story. Illuminated by the fascinating testimony of migrant life histories, this is the first substantial history of their experience and fills a gaping hole in the literature of emigration. The authors, both leading figures in the fields of oral history and migration studies, draw upon a rich life history archive of letters, diaries, personal photographs and hundreds of oral history interviews with former migrants, including those who settled in Australia and those who returned to Britain. They offer original interpretations of key historical themes, including: motivations for emigration; gender relations and the family dynamics of migration; the 'very familiar and awfully strange' confrontation with the new world; the anguish of homesickness and return; and the personal and national identities of settlers and returnees, fifty years on.

Accessible and appealing, this book will engage readers who are intrigued about the significance of migrant memories for individuals, families and nations.
A James Hammerton is Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University, Melbourne

Alistair Thomson is Reader in Continuing Education and History at the University of Sussex

BOOK LAUNCH DETAILS:
Melbourne:

1 July 2005

@ 6.00 pm (Immigration Museum)

Launched by Julia Gillard MP for Lalor and Labor Federal Health Shadow Minister

RSVP:

Jim Hammerton: 03 9479 2364 or email [email protected],
Marina Larsson: email [email protected]


Sydney:

7 July 2005

@ 1.00 pm (AHA Conference, University of NSW)

Launched by Michelle Rayner, Executive Producer of Hindsight
__________________________________________________ _____________________


For Review copies or to interview the author: Kate O’Reilly Tel.: +61 2 9997 3973, or email

<mailto:[email protected]> or Jim Hammerton, email:[email protected]

Gibbo

Looked at this thread earlier and as no one has responded I thought I would. You haven't lived if you haven't experienced life in a migrant hostel!!!!!! What irks me now is that someone else is going to make money out of our misfortune! if only the thousands of former residents had thought of writing as book -but then few would have believed it! Truth is often stranger than fiction!

hevs

Unfortunately i have to listen to my Grans "ohhh you young 'uns don't know how easy you've got it. When we arrived we stayed in a hostel and work 7 days a week 24 hours a day just to get by" Blah blah Then my aunties going on about the smell of the chicken factory

I KNOW!!!

Bet it would be interesting though, especially for those thinking they are having it tough

Gibbo

You are so right about those thinking they have it tough today! My husband, and many others , used to work 2 jobs which meant they left home around 5am and didn't get back until midnight! In the meantime I and many others were stuck at home with the children. You have no idea how soul destroying it is for someone with a university education to have no one but under 5s to converse with all day!!! But we survived!

mr mover

you should listen to yer gran, you impertinent pup, we stayed for 18mths , in Brooklyn hostel 0n millers rd wool sheds one side Bothwicks Abbatoire on the other. wonderful smells in summer ...........mm

hevs

I do listen MM, every time i see the woman

Joking apart though my grandparents and their 2 youngest daughters (other 3 left in UK) stayed in a hostel in Bays water for 18 months. They all worked 7 days a week and saved their money till they could afford to buy a house. In the end they all afforded to get their own homes built on 1/2 acre blocks (remember them??) and lived a very good life (and still do). Not bad from coming from a 2 bed back to back in a northern mining slum hey??

IRONS

You are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo wise Mr M

Love

Dawn

Megalania

Taxes were much lower then - minimal "social security" - so more of earnings "fell to the bottom line".

Pollyana

Hels,
Any idea of where it will be available from, or the price?? Sounds like an interesting read.

Badge

Maybe we all could write the 1000* Pound Pom stories in years to come.

Badge


*rounded up (700 odd pounds on the fee.
150 ish on Medical.) Your experience may well cost differently. Exchange rates may vary.

vandiemen

[QUOTE=Hels]I received this email here at work and thought there might be some people that come to this site that might be interested in either the launch or just the book once it hits the shelves.

Hels


Nice one Hels,

I actually ordered it last week from waterstones.

Gibbo

It should be a good read although life wasn't easy there was plenty of laughs and many lasting friendships made.

Hels

Hi ya Pollyana,

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you...dont have access over the weekends at the moment (but thats a whole other thread!! )

Unfortunatly I dont know where or how much. That email was just sent round on the Uni's general email and thats as much as I know about it.

I did see that someone else has posted they have ordered it. Perhaps you can look up Waterstones website??

Hope you find it.

Hels