“I think it's terrific and I was very moved by it. ”
TIM WINTON

“One Hundred Years of Dirt had me spellbound from the get-go. Morton is a crack storyteller and his words and stories are infused with genuine compassion. It's a magnificent book, the clarity of it is inspiring.”
CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS

“I think this book should be read by every Australian.”
STEPHEN ROMEI, THE AUSTRALIAN LITERARY EDITOR

“Buy it. Read it. It is a memoir and a collection of essays, but much more than that. It is both broadly and deeply political without a syllable of lazy thinking or labelling. An overdue reminder that class remains a defining component of identity. Funny and tragic, often in the same sentence. And perhaps most important of all, written with a clarity and beauty that leaves me breathless.”
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MARGARET SIMONS, MONASH UNIVERSITY

“From the Birdsville Roadhouse to the Higgs Field, with an emotional rollercoaster in between, this is a brutally raw, beautifully written, remarkably brave memoir. ”
SIMON CRERAR, BUZZFEED AUSTRALIA

“[Rick] writes really brilliantly and bravely. He’s a very talented person and [One Hundred Years of Dirt] is a really impressive piece of work.”
LEIGH SALES

“This is a story as desolate and damaged as the land it begins on, but Morton brings it to life with compassion and transparency.”
KILL YOUR DARLINGS

“Incredible. I laughed and cried and punched the air often and all at once. The story explains your brilliant insight into how poverty, class & trauma shape lives and how blind we are to their power. ”
SARAH MACDONALD, ABC RADIO

“Morton writes beautifully about the long-term consequences of violence and impoverishment”
JEFF SPARROW, MEANJIN

★A critically acclaimed social observation!
◎Finalist in the National Biography Award 2019,
◎Longlisted for the Walkley Book Award 2018,
◎Highly Commended in the Victorian Premier's Literary Award 2019.

★Social mobility is not a train you get to board after you've scraped together enough for the ticket. You have to build the whole bloody engine, with nothing but a spoon and hand-me-down psychological distress.

Violence, treachery and cruelty run through the generational veins of Rick Morton's family. A horrific accident thrusts his mother and siblings into a world impossible for them to navigate, a life of poverty and drug addiction

One Hundred Years of Dirt is an unflinching memoir in which the mother is a hero who is never rewarded. It is a meditation on the anger, fear of others and an obsession with real and imagined borders. Yet it is also a testimony to the strength of familial love and endurance.

Rick Morton, a critically acclaimed author and award-winning journalist, is senior reporter at The Saturday Paper.