Jamie Callister

Today more than 22 million jars of Vegemite are sold each year, but when the salty black paste was first produced in 1923 the public wasn't interested. In fact, it took another fifteen years and a world war before we embraced it.

The Man Who Invented Vegemite spans the Gold Rush, the Depression and two world wars and it opens a fascinating window both on the evolution of modern Australia and the quiet achievements, and tragedies, of one man. Jamie Callister sets out to learn more about the grandfather he never met and, along the way, discovers that extraordinary things can happen to (almost) ordinary people.