AUSTRALIAN AUTHOR In 1988 Colin Smith began researching the history of renowned Australian potter, Merric Boyd and his family in Murrumbeena and the relationship they had with their local community. This research would become Merric Boyd and Murrumbeena The Life of an Artist in a Time and a Place. As well as providing a comprehensive record of the family's long period of residence at their family home, Open Country and of their extraordinary artistic output, his book records the fascinating relationship between the family and the residents of Murrumbeena. The history of the Boyd family is recorded, beginning with Merric Boyd's earliest days as a young potter learning his trade, and ending over 50 years later with his death and the demolition of Open Country. The book includes countless photographs of the Boyd family and of those who new them, many never published before.