Sydney's North Shore was - and still largely is - a very special place. It is a particular subset of Sydney's wider community ... a separate enclave, with its own habits, beliefs, and peculiar ways. Sandra Darroch (nee Jobson) was born and bred on the East side of the North Shore Line, then regarded as the Right Side of the Tracks. She was privileged to be familiar with its particular atmosphere and culture (both high and low).

So Put Down at Birth is a native's expose of Sydney's North Shore. It is not a history book, nor is it a Politically Correct tale. Instead, it provides a unique view of what is still a little world unto itself. A reporter by both profession and inclination (she was the first female general reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald), Sandra looks back at the North Shore she grew up in and knew so well. She exposes the strengths and frailties which made this leafy enclave, even today, rather more genteel than the raffish other parts of Sydney. Strictly speaking, the genuine North Shore, which begins at Roseville and peters out around Pearces Corner, Wahroonga, must be treated separately from the more general 'North Side' of Sydney.

Being Put Down at Birth for one of the North Shore's exclusive private schools was, and still is, a passport to a comfortable, well-heeled future. Dancing class at Miss Kay's; the Saturday afternoon birthday party; school uniforms at David Jones or Farmers; the Regatta; the North Shore sex Code in those pre-Pill days; holidays up the Mountains at the Hydro; the growth of evangelical religion - growing up on the right side of the tracks, Sandra Darroch gives an insider's glimpse of these North Shore rituals, some of which exist to this day.