A good travel book is usually more than the mere chronicle of a journey, and a journey is often, but not always, a metaphor for something else altogether. Meanwhile, the act of departure can be read as an affirmation of life, an act of faith or, as is the case with James O’Loghlin, one of utter desperation.

The voyages of discovery around their home city of Sydney undertaken by O’Loghlin, his partner, the actor Lucy Bell, and their baby daughter were prompted by frustration at the noise from building sites abutting their once idyllic North Bondi home. Besieged by workmen and keen to escape the dust, noise and interminable swearing that seem to accompany any construction, this family unit decided life had to be more fun away from the house.