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The Idea of Home

207 pages
Paperback, 19.6 x 13.5 cm
Published November 2004
ISBN 1920882049

The Idea of Home

John Hughes

Winner, NSW Premier's Literary Award

In The Idea of Home John Hughes writes about growing up in the Hunter Valley coal-mining town of Cessnock, in a household dominated by memories of the Ukraine, which his mother and grandparents were forced to flee during the Second World War.

Hughes charts the effect their stories and routines had on him as a child, the way they shaped his imagination, and determined his idea of himself, as a student in Newcastle, and later as the holder of a prestigious scholarship at Cambridge University. Yet this inheritance almost undoes him, for in Cambridge what he encounters is not the romantic idea of Europe he had imagined, but a provincialism more pronounced than that he had left behind in Australia.

About the Author

John Hughes

John Hughes was born in Cessnock, NSW, and educated at the Universities of Newcastle and Cambridge, and the University of Technology, Sydney. His first book, The Idea of Home: Autobiographical Essays, won both the National Biography Award and the NSW Premier’s Award for Non Fiction. He is the librarian at Sydney Grammar School.

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Awards

Winner, 2005 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction

Related News

Idea of Home voted winning title for NSW in National Year of Reading

Between November 2011 and January 2012, more than 16,200 readers voted online through the ABC Arts Gateway and at their local libraries to choose eight titles, one for each state and territory, which would provide the basis for Australia’s biggest book group in 2012. The winners were announced at the launch of the National Year […]

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