The World of Norman Lindsay is compiled by Lin Bloomfield, proprietor of the Bloomfield Galleries in Paddington, NSW, and an authority on Lindsay’s work. It was first published more expensively in 1979. This elegant paperback will make it widely accessible, which is a matter for satisfaction. It contains comprehensive, short, expert articles about Lindsay’s life and achievements as an artist and the reminiscences of Lindsay’s children, grandchildren, models, friends, and colleagues. Good illustrations, some in colour, cover every era of his works in all their variety, and the book also includes photographs of people and places.

A Letter from Sydney by Norman’s son Ray was written in 1959 and is now published for the first time in a handsome limited edition. It was a response to a request from his brother Jack for some background reminiscence to reinforce Jack’s memories of their rakehell youthful days in Sydney during the 1920s. Jack was about to write the second volume of his autobiography. (The first volume, Life Rarely Tells, had already appeared, the second was The Roaring Twenties and the third Fanfrolico and After – Penguin published the three as a trilogy in one volume Life Rarely Tells, 1982.) Jack, with full acknowledgement, directly quotes a good deal of Ray’s letter in the second volume, but usually considerably expands the material with his own additions and comment.