Backseat Drivers: A road trip along the Hume Highway with some opinionated voices from Australia's history

by Craig Cormick

It's a fact not yet universally acknowledged, that everybody should at some point in their lives attempt to follow in the footsteps of the explorers Hume and Hovell down the Hume Highway, preferably in the company of Captain Cook, Henry Lawson, Caroline Chisholm and Ned Kelly. Backseat Drivers is a hilarious and biting satire on the intersection and byways of the past, the present and the future.

'A most wonderful endeavour' - Captain James Cook

'Such is strife!' - Edward Kelly

'I wish I'd written it' - Henry Lawson

310 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 17, 2018

About the author

Craig Cormick in an Australian science communicator and author. He was born in Wollongong in 1961, and is known for his creative writing and social research into public attitudes towards new technologies. He has lived mainly in Canberra, but has also in Iceland (1980–81) and Finland (1984–85). He has published 15 books of fiction and non-fiction, and numerous articles in refereed journals. He has been active in the Canberra writing community, teaching and editing, was Chair of the ACT Writers Centre from 2003 to 2008 and in 2006 was Writer in Residence at the University of Science in Penang, Malaysia.

Cormick's creative writing has appeared in most of Australia's literary journals including Southerly, Westerly, Island, Meanjin, The Phoenix Review, Overland, Scarp, 4W, Redoubt, Block, as well as in overseas publications including Silverfish New Writing (Malaysia) and Foreign Literature No 6 (China). He has previously been an editor of the radical arts magazine Blast, and his writing awards include the ACT Book of the Year Award in 1999 and the Queensland Premier's Literary Award in 2006. As a science communicator he has represented the Australian Government at many international science forums including APEC and OECD conferences, presenting on issues relating to public concerns about new technologies.

Reviews

[Dion Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first saw this book advertised I thought it was a non-fiction and I was surprised to see that it was being sold as fiction. Having read it, I’d say it is a hybrid with a good mix of fact and fiction. It is essentially a travelogue with fictionalised dialogue with historical figures. The subtitle is a bit of a misnomer as the route taken is not down the Hume Highway as most people know it. Instead, it follows as closely as it can, the route that Hume and Hovell took when they first sought to find an inland way from Sydney to Melbourne. Along the way, the car stops at every historical place of interest providing the reader with lovely snippets of history. In addition to this, the driver of the car, seeks to ask the question, what does it mean to be Australian? In trying to answer this question we get a varied perspective from place to place. At times it is quite terse; at other times quite nationalistic.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I think because I physically live close to the Hume Highway and travel on it regularly. I have also been to more than eighty percent of the place visited, but I’ve never stopped to take in their history. This book gave me a new perspective and I have already begun to plan a road trip that will follow in its footsteps. It’s a book I would consider classic Australiana, but this notion is challenged so I will leave that to the reader to decide. The book at times also raises other thorny points leaving me wondering how it will be perceived by those who are rigidly politically correct. Personally, I think this type of questioning should be allowed.

The only thing I will say against the book is I think it needed an annotated map, showing the route taken with some notes on the points of interest and where to find the monuments to Hume and Hovell. I read the book following the route on a map book, but at times there wasn’t detailed enough and I became lost. I would also have like to see some colour photos and also a reference list or bibliography to aid others in their research.

Without hesitation, I recommend this book to anyone who likes history and travel stories even when they have a fictional element. It is a book that I can envisage having many sequels along other famous routes. I hope to see them.