Showing Sydney observed by Gavin Souter

When Sydney Observed was first published in 1965 (under the title Sydney), and illustrated throughout with the striking photographs of Quintin F. Davis, it won instant and rapturous praise from reviewers across Australia and beyond.

Within the space of a few years it came to be regarded as the best single piece ever written about the city. (‘Write the text of a new book about Sydney?’ a distinguished writer asked his publisher. ‘But after Souter, what’s left to say?’)

A second hardback edition featuring the iconic illustrations of fellow talented Sydneysider, George Molnar, was released in 1968. It is this edition we proudly reproduce digitally here for the very first time.

In prose that is measured, astute, wry and always entertaining, Gavin Souter has captured the Emerald City’s fortunes, foibles, history and future. He has produced a work that is as timely, relevant and lucid today as it was when first published.

Sydney Observed, illustrated by George Molnar, is a small masterpiece – a book for giving, keeping, reading and re-reading.

Reviews of Sydney Observed

‘Here, for once, is a description of Sydney which is unblinking but good-mannered, appreciative but unsentimental, factual but not a tourists’ guide, opinionated by never eccentric ... a brilliant mosaic.’ The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Brilliantly successful.’ The Times Literary Supplement

‘Unfalteringly entertaining.’ The Age