Author(s): Jane Crowley, Athol Salter

Decorative arts

As an antique dealer, Athol Salter has peddled in other people's stories for over sixty years. From humble beginnings in his Junque Shop in country New South Wales in the 1960s to Dirty Janes in the Southern Highlands, he has rummaged through ramshackle huts, dealt with dubious property from deceased estates and cleared grand country properties and crumbling mansions looking for pieces filled with stories to pass on.

Beeswax and Tall Tales includes not just snippets from Athol's hilarious and poignant life, but the stories told in the antiques he trades and the enchanting people he meets along the way - from farmhands, colourful eccentrics and Italian migrants to long-lost relatives, British squires and a charming cockatoo...