'It was simpler time'. We had more fun back then'. 'Everyone could afford a house'. 

There's plenty of nostalgia right now for the Australia of the past, but what was it really like? 

In The Land Before Avocado, Richard Glover takes a journey to an almost unrecognisable Australia. It's a vivid portrait of a quite peculiar land: a place that is scary and weird, dangerous and incomprehensible, and, now and then, surprisingly appealing. 

It's the Australia of his childhood. The Australia of the late '60s and early '70s. 

Let's break the news now: they didn't have avocado. 

It's a place of funny clothing and food that was appalling, but amusingly so. It also the land of staggeringly awful attitudes - often enshrined in law - towards anybody who didn't fit in. 

The Land Before Avocado will make you laugh and cry, be angry and inspired. And leave you wondering how bizarre things were, not so long ago.

Most of all it will make you realise how far we've come - and how much further we can go.