Upside-Down Under: Alida Baxter

This English author set out to write a sort of a travel book. She couldn't stay home and write about other people's husbands, and everyone she knew was someone else's husband. Even her ex-husband was someone else's husband. So she made the journey to Australia - well out of range of extradition for libel! - and found out about Australians: Where one may and may not swear; what light relief at an opal mine actually was; how to be given a present in a ladies' lavatory in a ghost town; and what it was like to spend a morning with an exhibitionist. Veteran actor Leslie Thomas said: "She is one of the funniest ladies I know." Cover art and illustrations by Bill Tidy.