Anne Summers – författare

''Australians'' fervent belief in luck is deeply etched in our consciousness. More than with the citizens of other countries, it affects the way we see most things. When someone escapes serious injury or death in an accident, we remark on how lucky they were. We don''t say they were unlucky to have had the accident in the first place.''In ON LUCK, Anne Summers explores the gambling culture that is so intrinsic to being Australian, corruption in business, the economy, our obsession with being ''The Lucky Country'', and which Australian city is the best example of a place that has relied on its luck and lost.

This book offers an entirely new contribution to the history of multiculturalism in Britain, 1880-1940. It shows how friendship and co-operation between Christian and Jewish women changed lives and, as the Second World War approached, actually saved them. The networks and relationships explored include the thousand-plus women from every district in Manchester who combined to send a letter of sympathy to the Frenchwoman at the heart of the Dreyfus Affair; the religious leagues for women’s suffrage who initiated the first interfaith campaigning movement in British history; the collaborations, often problematic, on refugee relief in the 1930s; the close ties between the founder of Liberal Judaism in Britain, and the wife of the leader of the Labour Party, between the wealthy leader of the Zionist women’s movement and a passionate socialist woman MP. A great variety of sources are thoughtfully interrogated, and concluding remarks address some of the social concerns of the present century.