Under Cover: Adventures in the Art of Editing (Craig Munro, Scribe)

Former University of Queensland (UQP) publishing director Craig Munro’s memoir is a nostalgic retelling of his long and distinguished career in Australian publishing, which coincided with a boom in the industry in the 1970s and 1980s. For the most part the book doesn’t focus on Munro himself, but instead on the industry and its identities—including some of the biggest names in Australian literature. Munro built a close working relationship with Peter Carey—Munro was Carey’s first publisher—and the author’s career arc is recounted in detail. It’s a compelling angle, with the small university press fighting to keep the rights to—and some editorial input into—some of the most popular books in the world at the time. It’s just one of many entertaining threads to this book, with Munro having collected more than a lifetime’s worth of anecdotes and scuttlebutt. Because Munro has so many topics to cover, including the rise in popularity of Australian women writers and UQP’s role in championing Indigenous writing, some sections are begging to be expanded. This is compulsive reading for anyone interested in Australian books and culture.

 Brad Jefferies is the news editor for Books+Publishing

Category: Reviews