Playtime: Emily Gallagher in conversation with Justine Clark

Please join us for the Book Launch of Emily Gallagher’s book Playtime: A History of Australian Childhood - Black Inc Books

To be launched by Australian actress, singer, author and television host Justine Clarke

About The Book

This groundbreaking book is a history of children’s play and imagination in Australia between 1890 and the Second World War. It is a story about the generations that grew up at a time when nation and empire were being reimagined amid the globalising currents of war, technology and trade. Theirs were faces that would remain forever young in monochrome film, and whose thoughts and dreams would be preserved between the timeless blue lines of the modern school exercise book.

The book is built around six imaginative worlds amateur journalism, bird loving, war and adventure, dolls, the future, and monsters and fairies. It brings these worlds, and the voices of children, to life, exploring an incredible array of children’s artefacts and seeing the social history of Australia through a new lens.

'In this brilliant study, Emily Gallagher reveals childhood imagination and play as at once traditional and modern, conservative and forward-looking – a realm of joy, fantasy and fear entangled with the adult world, yet a kingdom that children also claim as their own. Playtime is a book of striking richness, originality and creativity that will change your understanding of the possibilities of Australian social history.' —Frank Bongiorno, author of Dreamers and Schemers

‘Emily Gallagher’s beautiful new history illuminates the ways children have imagined their worlds through play. Emerging from years of careful and creative historical research, Gallagher offers a new lens through which to examine Australian history. Brimming with empathy and intelligence, Playtime is a remarkable feat of historical imagination.’ ––Michelle Arrow, co-author of Personal Politics

'Beautifully written, Playtime is an innovative history of children's imaginative play that takes children seriously in their own right and on their own terms.' —Hannah Forsyth, author of Virtue Capitalists

'A joy to read, this landmark study demonstrates the significance of children's creative play, restive imaginations and slumbered dreamworlds. Emily Gallagher has written an instant classic of Australian history, according her young protagonists a central place in the national narrative … Playtime showcases a treasure trove of sources to tell vital stories about social relations, change and continuity.' —Simon Sleight, author of Young People and the Shaping of Public Space in Melbourne, 1870–1914

About Emily Gallagher

Emily Gallagher is a historian and research editor at the Australian National University. Her PhD thesis was awarded the Serle Prize in Australian History and the Lyndall Ryan Prize in Australian Studies.

About Justine Clarke

Justine Clarke is one of the most recognised and trusted faces on the Australian entertainment landscape: a best-selling children’s singer and author, internationally acclaimed film star, seasoned stage actor - currently starring in the Sydney Theatre Company production of Julia, playing the role of Julia Gillard, and a constant, reassuring presence on the daytime TV institution, Play School.