Pulp Fiction paperback publishing did not only happen in America. In the second half of the 20th Century an Australian pulp scene burned brightly with tales of jaded gunshoes, valiant servicemen and women, daring spies, violent youth gangs and bikies.

• The swathes of  lurid cover art, were designed to make the books stand out at newsstands and bookshops.
• From sex workers and witches, to juvenile delinquents and hippies – they were  all mainstream society’s conscious and subconscious obsession and fears and essential for all pulp fodder stories.
• At its height in the 1960s pulp fiction titles were pumped out at a great rate, producing print runs of up to 20,000.

The demise of pulp publishing began around early 1970s, with the introduction of the ‘R’ (Restricted: Containing adult material and unsuitable for those under the age of 18)classification in 1971 meant more sexually liberated material began to appear on both television and the movies. With this new visual content, people didn’t have to read a book to get their thrills.

Today there are many pulp fiction collectors, trawling second-hand bookshops, garage sales, charity shops and internet sites.

• Gone are the days when ‘The Long Night’ transformed from ‘Beyond Desire’ and ‘Fatal Intimacy’ to ‘Death at the Nudist Camp!‘

Now, where did I leave that book-mark?

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