Richmond Son [Hardcover]

Richmond Son is a snapshot of the life and times of a boy during the 1950s. ? ? He lives in Richmond, an old and tired suburb on the doorstep of Melbourne. ? ?Peter attends St James, North Richmond, a Catholic primary school were the pupils are taught by nuns. ? Its struggling under the pressures of a burgeoning student population, the effects of the post war immigration boom and the baby boomers. ? ?Theres no government funding and few new nuns. ? ?A sense of antagonism is swirling just below the surface as Catholics continue to battle under the gaze of an indifferent Protestant majority. ? But unforeseen changes are about to occur which will ultimately transform this situation.

Peters parents were strugglers. ? Like many of that time, they had been faced by a future without opportunity. ?First there had been the social, political and educational abyss of the 1930s depression, where adult unemployment reached 30%. ? ?Then the war arrived, which led to conscription for my father and factory work for my mother. ? ?When wars end finally came, a whole generation would look back upon a fifteen year period that had been laced with fear and despair.

By the middle 1950s, our splendid city of Melbourne was on the cusp of great change. ? The Olympic Games were about to transform it and so was black and white television. ? Millions of new migrants would complete the transformation. ? Peter reflects upon how it used to be, seen through the eyes of a boy just eight years old.