THE MAN WHO INVENTED VEGEMITE

More than 22 million jars of Vegemite are sold each year, but when the salty black paste was first produced in 1923 the public wasn’t interested. In fact, it took another fifteen years and a world war before we embraced it.

Vegemite: The True Story of the Man Who Invented an Australian Icon (Murdoch Books 2023) spans the Gold Rush, the Depression and two world wars and it opens a fascinating window both on the evolution of modern Australia and the quiet achievements, and tragedies, of one man.

Jamie Callister sets out to learn more about inventor Cyril Callister, the grandfather he never met and along the way, discovers that extraordinary things can happen to (almost) ordinary people.