The Bible in Australia won the Australian History Prize at the 2019 NSW Premier's History Awards, and marks the first time a historian has treated Australia's relationship with the Bible as a subject in its own right.

Lake explores how the Bible has gotten 'under Australian skin', permeating this country's history, both religious and secular, ever since British settlement.

In awarding Lake her Australian History Prize, the Premier's History Award judges commented, "Meredith Lake's The Bible in Australia is a book of remarkable originality. Formidably researched yet carrying its scholarship with an enviable lightness of touch, this is a ground-breaking cultural and social history."

Join us at the library for a fascinating evening devoted to a work that is greatly significant for Christians, but also meaningful for people of other faiths, and for those who are not religious at all.

The Bible in Australia explores the Bible's presence in politics, literature and art, in the colonisation of Indigenous people, as well as their resistance, and in many examples of popular culture.

This event is free to attend, thanks to a statewide program, 'Going Places - Authors on Tour', run by the State Library of NSW and supported by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund.

Light refreshments will be served from 5.30pm and the book launch will begin at 5.45pm.

Bookings are essential, online at bit.ly/meredithlake, by phoning 6926 9700, or emailing wcl@wagga.nsw.gov.au.

Copies of The Bible in Australia will also be available for sale at the event.

Are you looking to join a book club in 2020?

The library will host its free Strays and Waifs evening on Monday January 20, at 5.30pm.

Come and meet with leaders of existing book clubs seeking new members, or possibly form a book club of your own with like-minded readers.