The Ghosts of My Friends is a kind of autograph book that was published around the turn of the 20th century. The directions inside it state: ‘Sign your name along the fold of the paper with a full pen of ink, and then double the page over without using blotting paper.’ The resultant smuges sometimes looked like ghostly or supernatural figures. My copy of The Ghosts of My Friends originally belonged to Lysle Davey of ‘Cullen House’ Bendigo. Following are the signatures of two of his friends, Ethel Kick and Fred H. Milvain.

This photograph of Graham Kennedy and Panda Lisner in a buggy and Joff Ellen on a horse was taken by C.P. Goodall of Ballarat in the late 1950s or very early 1960s. On the back of the photograph Mr Goodall wrote: ‘Graham and Panda head off on their drive at a smart trot. Graham tries to make it not too smart.’

Whenever I come across a used autograph book, diary or journal going cheap, I usually buy it. This Collins Architects and Builders Diary of 1961 appears to have belonged to a delivery van driver, whose run took in the NSW towns of Auburn, Blacktown, Blackheath, Blaxland, Camellia, Concord, Chullora, Faulconbridge, Homebush, Katoomba, Mascot, Medlow Bath, Penrith, Pyrmont, Revesby, Rosehill, Rozelle, St Marys, Sidcombe, Springwood, Sydney, Villawood, and Woodford. On some days he’d drive delivery van FYT 084 and on others FYM 479.

‘Here’s a problem you might work out in your spare time. It is something I want to use in a story that is buzzing in my mind and I can’t get on with it until I solve the problem. The hero wants to hide a small cylinder somewhere in a car. The cylinder holds important documents—secret documents. Now where and how could he hide the cylinder in a car so that even expert mechanics fail to spot it? In the story, when it is shown where the cylinder was hidden, the searchers will say, “Heavens, I should have thought of that myself.” And I want the readers of the story to say that too. I’d be awfully grateful for your help.’ (From a letter by Courtier to his brother-in-law, Alan George, 3/3/73.)