A curator's journey to uncover the stories behind everyday objects and preserve history for the common good

After thirty years confined within museum walls, a restless history curator steps out for air. In this book of essays, Anne-Marie Condé grants herself freedom to ask fresh questions about the significance of objects and places within the lives of ordinary people. Cemeteries, junk shops, war memorials. Stones and scraps and scrawls. These are where this author goes for inspiration.

Whether it's a wet greasy pavement in Hobart or a message in chalk in Sydney: Condé can coax a historical narrative out of the most meagre sources. Along the way she asks why anyone would offer a potato as a gift to a prime minister? How could this humble vegetable help us think about Australia's past?

Throughout, Condé casts a patient and gently curious gaze over her subjects. Many writers are fascinated by unrecorded lives, but where there are records, Condé is sure to find them.