The Englishman who has called Newcastle, Australia, home for nearly the last 20 years has finally packaged up his considerable collection of his own drawings of our Newcastle - showing our warts, our age, our cheekiness and modest beauty - into a single book.

Of course, he's called it The Book of Newcastle - because nobody ever did that before. It's got gold trim and a stylish red bound bookmark, and a few words of wisdom from Trevor. But most importantly, it's got nearly 400 images that tell a great story about Newcastle and its icons and architecture, words and places.

He's hoping the locals enjoy it. For him, it's reminiscent of Monty Python's Big Red Book series in the 1970s, crazy annuals reflecting their absolute silliness. "I wanted it to be like that," he says. "You can flick through it."

I spoke with Trevor for this week's Weekender. He said his job as an artist was "to put things out", pulling a line from the English contemporary artist Grayson Perry. He's telling us where to look.

That's the sort of thing I'm doing," Trevor says, "'Look at this!'""

Or, as the exact quote from Perry goes - he's "noticing what what other people don't notice".

I hope you enjoy the read,

Jim

- Jim Kellar is the editor of Weekender, the Newcastle Herald's Saturday magazine.