"Sydney is blithe, irresponsible, slightly mad; she has air full of electric sparks, and her birds shout in boy's voices."

Ruth Park

Ruth Park has a passion for Sydney, for its history, its characters and its moods.

She has written over fifty books, including ten novels, twenty-seven children's books and several travel and educational works.

Among her prizes are the Miles Franklin Award for her novel Swords and Crowns and Rings (1977) and the Age Book of the Year award for her first volume of autobiography, A Fence Around the Cuckoo (1992) and the FAW Herb Thomas Literary Award for the second volume, Fishing in the Styx (1993). She has been awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New South Wales and in 1996 she was named as a friend of the National Library for her services to Australian writing.

In November 2003, Duffy & Snellgrove will publish a new format reprint of Ruth Park's Sydney, her classic history of the city.