The Heart Garden (Janine Burke, Random House, $49.95 hb, ISBN 1740512022, October) ****

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Janine Burke returns to the territory she covered in the popular and award-winning Australian Gothic in this biography of Australian 20th-century art scene lynchpin Sunday Reed. From the beginning of her life, born into the Baillieu family, through to its end at her home that became one of Australia’s best-known and –regarded modern art museums, Heide, Sunday was an extraordinary figure, well-deserving of this detailed biography. The book in large part concerns itself with the ménage between Sunday, her husband John Reed and the renowned artist Sidney Nolan, but canvasses Sunday’s (and John’s) incredible influence in the Australian, and particularly Melbourne, art world. Hester, Tucker, Boyd, Brack, Mora and Blackman are just some of the many familiar names that are brought to life by Burke’s intensely researched work. But Sunday—her mood swings, her creativity, her lifestyle and through it all, her gardens—remains the core of this work. The title is a reference to a secret garden that Sunday created at Heide in memory of Nolan, her great love. The book will be a handsome Christmas sale for historians, art buffs, gardeners and fans of Australiana alike.

Eliza Metcalfe is AB&P’s editorial coordinator

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2004, Thorpe-Bowker