I am just catching up with the delightfully acerbic writing of Madeleine St John. The Women in Black although first published in 1993 is a portrait of an earlier Sydney where women remain at work until they marry and have children, where husbands  drink after work with their mates (but only until 6 o'clock), and where newly arrived immigrants from Europe, the continentals, are just beginning to exert their influence on the culture and values of Australian society.

St John's book is full of details pungent to me because they represent the world as I first encountered it. The Women in Black is a deft comedy of manners set in a clearly drawn period of our history.