In Girt Nation, David Hunt tramples the tall poppies of the past in charting Australia’s transformation from aspiration to nation – an epic tale of charlatans and costermongers, of bush bards and bushier beards, of workers and women who weren’t going to take it anymore.
Girt Nation introduces Alfred Deakin, the Liberal necromancer whose dead advisors made Australia a better place to live, and Banjo Paterson, the jihadist who called on God and the Prophet to drive the Australian infidels from the Sudan ‘like sand before the gale’. And meet Catherine Helen Spence, the feminist polymath who envisaged a utopian future of free contraceptives, easy divorce, and immigration restrictions to prevent the ‘Chinese coming to destroy all we have struggled for!’
Thrill as Jandamarra leads the Bunuba against Western Australia, and Valentine Keating leads the Crutchy Push, an all-amputee street gang, against the conventionally limbed. Gasp as Essendon Football Club trainer Carl von Ledebur injects his charges with crushed dog and goat testicles. Weep as Scott Morrison’s communist great-great-aunt Mary Gilmore holds a hose in New Australia. And marvel at how Labor, a political party that spent a quarter of a century infighting over how to spell its own name, ever rose to power.
The first book in David Hunt’s satirical history series was the 2013 award-winning Girt, which was shortlisted for the 2014 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA), the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and the Australian Book Design Awards. It was also the only non-fiction book shortlisted for the ABA Nielsen BookData 2014 Booksellers Choice Award. Hunt followed up with the side-splitting sequel, True Girt. His legions of readers now know what to expect from this series, and once again he delivers. He turns Australian history on its head, telling it more accurately, more intelligently, and certainly with more humour than ever before.
Hunt has a gift. This is a history lesson for a broad audience – I don’t think I’ve ever read a narrative history that’s more entertaining while maintaining accuracy. It’s unique and filled with riveting stories that will surprise you, move you, and make you laugh out loud.
When asked the question, who would your dream dinner party guest be? The great orator David Hunt would surely be up there for me. He is a masterful weaver of tales. Girt Nation is, quite simply, fabulous storytelling.
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