Having a book launch at a bookshop is very common and tends to follow a familiar script: a crowd assembles, hemmed in by mountains of printed titles at every corner. Then it’s a case of musical chairs – there are never enough of them, so you have to factor in the probability of standing up for the duration of the one-hour-plus event.
Simon Smith’s book, A Man of Honour, a lyrical reimagining of the life of Henry O’Farrell, was launched at the Cell Block Theatre at the National Art School, which was the Darlinghurst Gaol for the first 100 years or so of its existence. This was a most apt venue as O’Farrell was Australia’s first potential political assassin, and consequently this location was where he was imprisoned.
