Beyond the Ladies Lounge

‘The discovery of such otherwise obscured truths is precisely what makes history so valuable and what makes the author of Ladies Lounge an outstanding historian.’ * Australian Quarterly *
‘This is one of those simple ideas that illuminate the corners of history: Clare Wright’s detailed examination of the lot of the lady publican speaks volumes about the way women have negotiated private and professional life for the past 200 years.’ * Age *
‘Beyond the Ladies Lounge is the product of extensive historical research, and the many interviews with young and not so young women publicans lend the sense of humane and genuine engagement with the subject matter. It is also a book that urges us to consider the complexity and nuances of history.’ * Quadrant *
‘Beyond the Ladies Lounge is an important contribution to Australian history…a fine scholarly work.’ – Aviva Tuffield * Australian Book Review *
‘Written with a novelist’s eye for detail, a comic’s sense of humour and a researcher’s devotion to the riches of the past, this story of female publicans in Australia is a necessary and welcome addition to our national culture and mythology.’ * Weekend Australian *

Professor Clare Wright OAM is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster, podcaster, and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia, and the media. She is currently Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement at La Trobe University.

Clare is the author of five works of history, including the best-selling The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (winner of the 2014 Stella Prize) and You Daughters of Freedom. Her latest book, and the final installment in her Democracy Trilogy, is the highly acclaimed x1E48 ku Dh ruk The Bark Petitions. This book won the Australian Political Book of the Year, Queensland Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and NT History Book Award. It was also shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Victorian Premiers Literary Awards, Age Book of the Year Awards, and ABIA Awards, and was longlisted for a Walkley Award and the NIB Literary Award.

Clare has written and presented history documentaries for ABC TV and is Associate Producer of the feature film One Mind One Heart, written/directed by Larissa Behrendt, which won the NSW Digital History Award. She also hosts the ABC Radio National history podcast, Shooting the Past, co-hosts the La Trobe University podcast Archive Fever (with Yves Rees), and is Executive Producer of Hey History!, the first Australian history podcast designed for use in the classroom.

In 2020, Clare was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours list for “services to literature and to historical research.” She is Chair of the National Museum of Australia Council and a past Board Director of the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.

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