The first comprehensive examination of Australian book censorship, this enlightening and enthralling discussion is based on Nicole Moore’s discovery of the secret "censor’s library" in the National Archives. Combining scholarship with the narrative tension of a thriller, the book exposes the scandalous history of censorship in Australia. Built and maintained to ensure the books it held were not read—from the Kama Sutra to Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Joyce’s Ulysses—the censor’s library was kept to negate the function of libraries: 793 boxes kept safe and intact for six decades. Through courtroom dramas and internecine bureaucracy, stolen libraries and police raids, authorial scandals and moral panics, this is a provocative account on a subject that continues to attract heated debate.
