Sydney: The Story of a City

by Geoffrey Moorhouse

Sydney's harbor establishes it as one of the most attractive modern cities, but its beginnings suggest something different. In 1770, the British Parliament saw the area as a solution to England's overcrowded prisons. On arriving at the harbor, the first "convicts" found themselves in one of the hottest climates in the world, and were greeted by aboriginal natives whose curiosity was matched only by their desire for the newcomers to leave. Sydney is a place where gravestones have such inscriptions as "Be ready mates, that's all!," where people wear shorts and sandals to one of the most renowned opera houses in the world, where the working man fights for what he's got and never backs down. Geoffrey Moorhouse brilliantly describes the city, its appetites, and its character-from its colonial beginnings to its becoming the host city of the 2000 Olympics. His curious knowledge, remarkable insight, and marvelous storytelling capture Sydney's warmth, texture, resilience, and loyalty.

Genres: History, Australia, Nonfiction, Travel, Architecture, 20th Century, 19th Century

296 pages, Hardcover

First published August 12, 1999

About the author

Geoffrey Moorhouse, FRGS, FRSL, D.Litt, was an English journalist and author. He was born Geoffrey Heald in Bolton and took his stepfather's surname. He attended Bury Grammar School. He began writing as a journalist on the Bolton Evening News. At the age of 27, he joined the Manchester Guardian where he eventually became chief feature writer and combined writing book with journalism.

Many of his books were largely based on his travels. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society in 1972, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1982, and received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Warwick. His book To The Frontier won the Thomas Cook Award for the best travel book of its year in 1984. He had recently concentrated on Tudor history, with The Pilgrimage of Grace and Great Harry's Navy. He lived in a hill village in North Yorkshire. In an interview given at the University of Tuebingen in 1999, he described his approach to his writing.

All three of Moorhouse's marriages ended in divorce. He had two sons and two daughters, one of whom died of cancer in 1981. He died aged 77 of a stroke on 26 November 2009 and is survived by both sons and one daughter.

Reviews

[Boy Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moorhouse is clearly an accomplished writer and this book is easy and enjoyable to read. It's lighter than some of the other Sydney histories I've read and Moorhouse doesn't really get his hands dirty. There's the usual plethora of interesting anecdotes and facts, did you know Charles Kingsford Smith was the first person saved by Australian Surf Lifesavers when they were first created in Bondi? Moorhouse has probably done a better job of picking at the power dynamics in the city's history than some of the other Sydney biographies I've read.

The book does feel a little bit like a book for tourists written by a tourist. There's no real sense of what it's like to live in the city, and certainly not in the modern day (it was published 25 years ago so slight forgiveness there). Moorhouse does touch on Sydney's obsession with sport but doesn't really explore Sydney as a city of the body.

The geographical areas discussed are the tourist areas, which is basically the harbour and its surrounds. Western Sydney beyond Parramatta does not exist according to Moorhouse. And Parramatta really only exists in Moorhouse's mind because the Governor's house is there and because it's the terminus of the Greatest Working Harbour In The World.

Moorhouse really loves the harbour, and why wouldn't he? It's pretty much the 8th wonder of the world.

Every single book I've read about Sydney has absolutely lambasted the Cahill Expressway and the unnamed ghouls who decided it would be a good idea to deface Sydney's most important cultural site with it. But just for a change I'd love to see someone sing the Cahill's praises. It's par for the course to have a little jab at the Cahill and it feels like each Sydney biographer just cribs their notes on it from all those before them. I know, I know, it's got to go.

I enjoyed this a lot. A great introduction to Sydney but not quite the definitive biography of Australia's first city.

[Calum Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wonderful 'portrait' (it is not a travelogue) of Sydney (and, to some extent, of Australia generally) glides through every imaginable topic, from pre-history to colonisation to indigenous rights to politics, corruption, cricket and geology. Moorhouse is a fabulous writer, able to make any topic (even cricket) fascinating and insightful. The portrait is vivid indeed - affectionate yet critical, idiosyncratic yet authoritative, and mixes light and shade brilliantly. If some topics are inevtiably of more interest than others, the author is an engaging and wise guide through them all. A model of its kind, of which Moorhouse was something of a specialist - he also wrote portraits of Calcutta and New York.

[Greg Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superb pen portrait of a great city by a sympathetic local with strategic visions. The author covers everything worth including and undertakes some substantial research to augment personal observation. He has a good grasp of the Australian psyche. The book will necessarily date quickly but it is still relevant 20 years on.

[John Somers · Rating 3 out of 5]

13/20.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

After planning a trip to Sydney, of course this book called Sydney, The Story of a City makes sense to pick up from the library. I would have loved a less stodgy tome, but I did learn a lot about the city and who lives there. One thing I'll get out of the way is that Moorhouse loves to write run-on sentences. Here's an example:

"People also fish from jetties here or over the concave wall that was built right around this part of the Harbour to prevent rats ever again coming off the tramp steamers into town, after a disastrous plague at the turn of the century; they slurp ice cream as they watch the ceaseless traffic in vessels rumbling past; they linger over a coffee and a Danish while they read the Sydney Morning Herald or one of Mr. Murdoch's publications; they queue for Travelpasses of varying denominations that will allow them to ride any ferry, bus or CityRail train without further ado; they amble along the eastern arm of the Quay, to sample bivalves in the Oyster Bar, and then continue strolling on to the Opera House where, on a shining day, scores of sun worshippers will arrange themselves lazily on its long cascade of steps."

Yeah. That's one sentence. It was a bit of a list, so it's slightly justified, but really? It's distracting, like the singer at the family picnic that holds a note three times longer than is really necessary, just to get attention. Yeah, I just said family picnic, and implied people sang at them. Deal with it.

The book was useful to have read on the trip, and I recommend it if you plan on spending time in a city as lovely as Sydney. I don't recommend it if you don't. It was slightly difficult to get through and he's kind of a dork, but as I said, I did learn a lot, and was able to play Annoying American In-Law Tourist and tell Australians things they didn't know (or things that Moorhouse told me that were lies). For instance, did you know the Labor party is not spelled the "Labour" party in Australia because three Greek started the Anglo-American company, and then, one can assume, imported American spelling habits? Or that once the new came back from Gallipoli and began to sink in, a new batch of recruits in WW1 decided they didn't want to go to war - so they found a hotel, drank themselves silly, came into town on a train, and had a gunfight with police that involved a firehose, several injuries, and one death. The official response was to order all bars closed at 6pm during the war - but these rules lasted well beyond the war. So the tradition arose that workingmen would run to the bars as soon as 5 o'clock chimed, binge drink for an hour, and then stagger home with a bottle in a brown paper bag. You begin to understand Australia a bit after a few anecdotes like this.

We had a great trip and I highly recommend it - they do have good beer and often spell things correctly. The book... only entertain reading that if you're up for it.

[Dante · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10 in the big-words-index. I feel like I am getting smarter when I read a book with a scattering of new words. The chapters on politics and military were not so exciting, but the stories of Sydney's founding and the short blurbs on the other capital cities were amusing. The very last paragraph is an unnecessary dig at the USA, saying that if Americans had first set foot on Terra Australis, we would've f***ed it up. Either way made me want to go back again.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned on page 97 of 270. Too much description, not enough history. Written just before the Olympics in Sydney and reads like one of those positive photobook guides you can buy at tourist sites for cities. Fine in a guidebook not in a book this long.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd mishmash with some engaging bits. Read while in Sydney.