EXCLUSIVE!: Dispatches from The Paris End

by Cameron Hurst, Sally Olds, Oscar Schwartz

A few years ago, Cameron Hurst, Sally Olds, and Oscar Schwartz sat down for a beer at a Melbourne pub and decided to start a newsletter. It would be called The Paris End, after the aspirationally cosmopolitan (yet persistently grotty) hilltop at the eastern end of Melbourne’s city centre. It would seek to make much of a striving metropolis. It would publish hyperlocal, irreverent, long-form literary journalism – a dirty martini and a good gossip in email form.
EXCLUSIVE brings together a selection of eighteen lively essays from the first years of The Paris End. Hurst, Olds, and Schwartz take you into corset-making studios, art fairs, micro-dairies, apartment developments, university pubs, biohacking spas, court rooms, and the musty offices of the city’s Lacanian psychoanalysts. They ask urgent questions, such Can the male lesbian speak? Would you want to live forever if you had to live in Docklands? How does one emulate Frank Moorhouse’s financial ability to stay fed with caviar, and watered with champagne?
In this anthology, three distinct voices collaborate to mythologise a time and place, making Melbourne feel as worthy of attention as London, New York or Berlin.

Genres: Essays

314 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2025

Reviews

[ally · Rating 5 out of 5]

i LOVE the paris end 🫶🫶🥰😸🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

[ariana · Rating 5 out of 5]

masters of the form….

[Declan Fry]

Bringing together three years of writing from The Paris End, this is the must-read of the summer. The Paris End was born from the promise of finally being able to meet people again following Melbourne's endless lockdowns, when three writers gathered and decided to create a news service with a mission: "A society magazine for the precariat."

The spirit of The Paris End is that of Melbourne. You can really see, feel and hear the city as you read it, "a cosmopolitan purgatory where one could find a Gucci, a Prada, a Balenciaga and cocktail bars, but also bubble tea vendors, corporate lackeys sucking on vapes, food delivery drivers, revolutionaries, street preachers and grifting DJs."

Exclusive! is generous and consistently surprising. Gossipy, funny, engaged and aggressively, heartbreakingly good, Exclusive! is a chronicle of our weird times for all the weirdos out there building them. Forget Rosalia, forget the designs of Paris Fashion Week: Exclusive! is this year's must-have collection.

Read on:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-2...

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly delightful! Akin to the delicious moment I chomped into my very first persimmon. Not only the sweet and strange pleasure of it but the wonder of having not discovered it earlier.

Although crafted by three different and unique writers, every essay is sharp and fresh and even a bit naughty. I learned about all kinds of things – male lesbians, secret suburban raves, Lacanian analysis, new approaches to the housing crisis, and the recreational use of dexies.

It also beats the gentle drum of Melbourne’s inner pulse and makes me feel sentimental for the place, even though I live here! Perhaps it reminds me of being home again.

[Karen Freilich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Naarmcore delight

[Lia Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was skeptical about this being a book - what belongs on substack surely cannot entertain for a book? But I think it does, they are bright and curious essays

[Luke McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, sarcastic, erudite.

[Jenina · Rating 5 out of 5]

First finished book and five stars!!! Sharp, funny, and insightful on everyday Aussie POV on culture, politics, and life. Just the right glimpse

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genius

[gordon macindoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of lols and interesting observations
was a fun read and am continually impressed by sally olds's writing in particular
at the end of the day though, obvi but it was sooooooooo shmelbourne

[Macken Stirling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Must read as fiction.

[d_ee_nnnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t stop thinking about raw milk

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

feels fitting to finish reading this the same day as getting a rent increase :-)))))