For many actors, painters, musicians and writers, leaving Australia seemed to be
the only path to personal and professional fulfillment. Drawing on the lives of
people such as Dame Joan Sutherland, Jill Neville, Barry Humphries, Germaine
Greer and Clive James, this book explores the experience of being an expatriate
in London in the creative and performing arts. It is also a cultural history
that traces shifts in the relationship between Australia and Britain, as the
supposed colonial backwater began to develop its own national identity.