AustLit

'Homicide on Hydra: George Johnston’s Crime Novels is about the ‘forgotten’ five crime novels written by the Australian novelist George Johnston (perhaps not Australia’s Hemingway but an author held in very high regard nevertheless), which he wrote under the pseudonym ‘Shane Martin,’ while living on the island of Hydra in Greece between 1957 and 1962. While the books are all out-of-print, they are well-written and entertaining crime novels which, surprisingly, are almost as autobiographical as Johnston’s greatest book, My Brother Jack. 

'In 1951, the acclaimed two-time Miles-Franklin-Prize-winning Australian author George Johnston (1912-1970), together with his wife, the Australian author Charmian Clift (1923-1969), their son, Martin (1947-1990), and their daughter, Shane (1949-1973) moved from Australia to England; then, in 1954, they moved to Greece. They lived on Kalymnos for about a year before settling on Hydra, where the Johnstons’ third child, Jason was born in 1956. They returned to Australia in 1964. Johnston wrote many books while living on Hydra, including five crime novels under the pseudonym Shane Martin, featuring the diminutive, sixty-something, American archaeologist and amateur sleuth, Professor Ronald Challis who lives in England and does his fieldwork in Greece; as well as Johnston’s break-through autobiographical novel, My Brother Jack (1964), which many argue is ‘the great Australian novel’ — at least of the second half of the twentieth century. 

'Johnston’s Professor Challis series of books consist of Twelve Girls in the Garden (1957), The Saracen Shadow (1957), The Man Made of Tin (1958), The Myth is Murder (1959, titled The Third Statue in the USA), and A Wake for Mourning (1962, titled Mourners’ Voyage in the USA). As Australian mid-twentieth century crime fiction goes, Johnston’s seven crime novels are very good and certainly deserve an audience. However, like much of what he wrote prior to the publication of My Brother Jack, they have been largely ‘forgotten.’ Therefore, Homicide in Hydra: George Johnston’s Crime Novels examines the Professor Challis series in depth for the first time.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Australian Western in the Fifties: Kangaroo, Hopalong Cassidy on Tour, and Whiplash looks at Australian Westerns from three points of view—film, personal appearance, and television at the beginning, middle, and end of the 1950s, the American Western’s golden age. It looks at three significant but “forgotten” cases: (1) Kangaroo: The Australian Story, the first Technicolor film made in Australia, produced by the Hollywood movie studio 20^th Century Fox, directed by the Academy Award-winning filmmaker Lewis Milestone, starring Maureen O’Hara, Peter Lawford, and Richard Boone. (2) The successful goodwill tour of Australia by the Hollywood actor William Boyd who played the film, radio, and television cowboy Hopalong Cassidy. (3) The British-American produced black-and-white TV series Whiplash, made in Australia and starring the Hollywood actor Peter Graves. The American filmmakers’ ignorance of Australia meant they learned the hard way there was more to Australian Westerns than simply replacing the prairie with the bush, bison with kangaroos, and Native Americans with Aboriginals. Indeed, the depiction of place and the presentation of Aboriginal culture are two of the most intriguing aspects of Australian Westerns. In retelling the filmmakers’ stories, a unique picture of the Australian film and television industry and everyday life during the 1950s is revealed.' (Publication summary)