Second edition (first 1966), with updates to the bibliography; inscribed ‘For D.G. Bridson. Clem Semmler, Sydney, 21. 10. 71’.

In some ways Australia’s answer to Bridson, Semmler was a critic, editor, and a long-standing employee (eventually deputy general manager) of the Australian Broadcast Commission. Bridson had worked for eight months in Australia and New Zealand in 1947–8, delighted and exasperated by the country in equal measure, and helped to drive the creation of a features department at ABC. He made a return journey to the country in the winter of 1969, shortly before his retirement, and several further leisure trips in the ’70s. Semmler was very supportive of Bridson, and referred to the latter’s March of the ’45 as ‘still the best radio verse play written in English’ in 1981.