Review of Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, 'A Guide to Australian Folklore: From Ned Kelly to Aeroplane Jelly': Roseville, N.S.W. 2069: Simon and Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited., 2003. Pp.ix,310. ISBN (paper) 0731810759. $A29.95

Abstract

The volume under review is a joint enterprise between the same two scholars and teachers of Australian folkloristics who edited in 1993 'The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore', a handsome and deservedly popular text which has become a classic reference volume for scholars all over the world. The appearance of this present cultural compilation, 'A Guide to Australian Folklore: From Ned Kelly to Aeroplane Jelly', is peculiarly appropriate for both the general reader and for educationalists - and their students - at various levels in our society. As the present publishers stress very correctly in their summation, the new text constitutes "A major new reference book that details allusions, characters (real and fictional), events and places, beliefs and activities that constitute the folklore of the Australian people, past and present". The two scholars - now not just editors and contributors but the authors of the whole body of text this time around - are both deservedly known and recognised as the nation's two most active current writers-cum-collectors at the present time.