McPhee Gribble was the first time I began to understand that the work you did in the world had meaning. The couch didn't make it back to Melbourne, but the bookshelves full of all the books McPhee Gribble published over those years did and they have become something of a touchstone for all the work I've done, or attempted to do, since. By that time, its springs were so bad that its base rested on the floor. When McPhee Gribble was sold to Penguin Books a couple of years later I bought that couch and went on to lug it with me from house to house before finally taking it to Sydney. In the evenings, we often went for a second sitting and had a drink together. Much of the more interesting, but unrepeatable, gossip to be told about McPhee Gribble involves the well-used couch where we sat every morning for cups of coffee served from large enamel pots. But that doesn't start to convey the complex web of relationships that held the place together.'' It was a beautiful curse in a way and while I've worked in conventional office environments since, I've never settled comfortably into them. Credit: Rodger CumminsĪs Hilary McPhee wrote: ''This was how we all expected to work at a time of our lives when the public and private overlapped so much the division had no meaning.

Sophie Cunningham at the old Cecil Street building.

Bearbrass by Robyn Annear