June MacPherson

These books are right up there with the most bonkers things from my childhood, a strange combination of the psychedelic and the transplanted-colonials-in-Australia-during-the-supposed-global-age which I had completely repressed from my memory for the last 25 years.

During the 1960s, Bruce and June McPherson, husband and wife, published these unusual children's books. Each tells a simple story of two young girls out in the wilderness. The picture books use photographs of the dolls (Jill and Sue) in the outback. Sometimes the photos appear to have been 'photoshopped' to show the girls riding on a kangaroo or the like. Some photos are in colour (probably still an expense in the 1960s) while others have perhaps been colourised. It's hard to tell.

These are genuinely obscure with little redeeming value, but they perhaps help elucidate the odd psychology of many Austrailans of my parents' generation when it comes to matters of nationalism and self-worth. Retro glory!… (meer)