Barbara Minchinton

Having just finished lunch at a café in the curiously named ‘Madam Brussel’s Lane’ in Melbourne, I sauntered over to ‘Hill of Content’ bookshop on Bourke Street. To my serendipitous surprise, I spotted this title front and centre on the New Release shelves. Naturally, I bought it.

I had high hopes for this book, it promising to be an interesting if not amusing piece of social history. Alas the book has two authors of widely different areas of expertise. The primary author appears to be most concerned with foisting 21st century moral judgements on the 19th, with a brothel madame cast as heroine. This all becomes a bit tedious as you must constantly screen 21st century social ideology from historical fact. The second author delights in the forensic examination of 19th century buildings in which the said madame plied her trade and then invested her profits. Ho-hum.

Late in the book the irascible John Norton, editor of ‘The Truth’ circa 1900, finally enters the narrative. A populist journalist and contemporary to the books subject, his bombastic prejudiced hyperbole at least livens things up a little, thus getting the reader over the finish line with a bit of a smile.

- Copy purchased by the Reviewer from ‘Hill of Content’ bookshop, Melbourne.… (more)