About the Book

Hopalong Cassidy: A Horse Opera consists of the following three sections: Part One: Bang! Bang! Hopalong Cassidy Takes Darwin is a factual account of William Boyd’s event-packed two days in the Northern Territory capital in 1954; Part Two: Hopalepidopter Almost Takes Darwin is the libretto/storyboard created for Danius Kesminas in 2014; and Part Three: Invasion of the Puppets contains Lee McRae’s marvelous photographs of the Master of Architecture students’ amazing hand puppet-depictions of the opera’s characters.

About the Author and the Photographer

Dr. Derham Groves teaches architecture at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of many articles and several books on design and popular culture, including TV Houses: the Influence of Television on the Australian Home (2004); Anna May Wong’s Lucky Shoes: 1939 Australia Through the Eyes of an Art Deco Diva (2011) published by the Culicidae Press; and Out of the Ordinary: Popular Art, Architecture and Design (2012). In 2016, Derham curated Tee Vee at sixty, an exhibition at the Baillieu Library to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of television in Australia. He is currently writing a history of TV dinners. 

“To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.” Henri Cartier-Bresson. As the famous French photographer put succinctly, photography is an affair of the heart. Lee McRae’s passion for photography began, when at age 11, her mother bought her a camera for Christmas. She has worked as a professional photographer for over 35 years and her love of photography has taken her to extraordinary places, seen beautiful objects and met amazing people. “A well captured image freezes a moment in time, where everything aligns and that’s enough of a reason for me to carry a camera with me wherever I go.”

Where to Buy the Book

Hopalong Cassidy: A Horse Opera is available worldwide through Amazon, other brick-and-mortar stores, and directly through Hog Press.

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