Sidney Burchill

Sidney Lane Burchill is an Emeritus Professor of the Classics, currently residing in Sydney, Australia. Known more for his prolific correspondence than for his scholarship in latter days, he has (self) published several volumes of correspondence, Memoirs of a Serial Pest: Correspondence with Four Premiers, and Getting it Right, (but mostly) Getting it Wrong: Correspondence with Australian Bureaucrats 1945-1975 being two of the best known.

Although retired since 1984 he maintains his interest in public affairs and has three more volumes due for release in 2007.

In 2006, Professor Burchill began to address the issue of Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU). In his correspondence with former Education Minister Brendan Nelson, he attributed a rise in student pregnancy rates to the consequential unavailability of co-curricular activities.

Gaining a cult status in Sydney since the 1980s for his correspondence with government officers, Burchill was awarded the Key to the City (of Sydney) by the Lord Mayor in 1992.