The Sunburnt Country is a symposium of essays about Australia,
and is an expression of homage to the Queen, on the occasion of her Commonwealth Tour, by the Society of Australian Writers in Great Britain. The proceeds are being given to charity. The book is informative, sensible, profes- sional, and unpious. Divided into sections- ' A New Nation," The Landscape ' and The People '—it is equally good about all three. As Nature Left It ' by Mary Elwyn Patchett, and ' Their Way of Life' by George H. Johnston are two quite out- standing essays. Chester Wilmot's intro- ductory chapter is on a level of interest, scholarship and perception which make one lament anew the loss of that fine Australian writer, while passages about Sir Howard Florey, Sir Carleton Allen, Sir Keith Hancock, Donald Bennett, Eileen Joyce and other Australians will at least make known the fact that these eminent men and women are Australians, thus achieving the book's aim of disturbing our Pommy ignorance. The illustrations arc admirable, and plentiful as they are one might have wished for more of them.
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