Drawing on the experiences of people such as Dame Joan Sutherland, Barry Humphries and Clive James, this book, first published in 2000, explores the experience of being an expatriate in London in the creative and performing arts. It is also a cultural history that traces shifts in the relationship between Australia and Britain.

For many actors, painters, musicians and writers, leaving Australia seemed to be the only path to personal and professional fulfillment. Drawing on the lives of people such as Dame Joan Sutherland, Jill Neville, Barry Humphries, Germaine Greer and Clive James, this book explores the experience of being an expatriate in London in the creative and performing arts. It is also a cultural history that traces shifts in the relationship between Australia and Britain, as the supposed colonial backwater began to develop its own national identity.