'All over the country, brooding on squatters' verandahs, or mooning in selectors' huts,' so A. G. Stephens wrote in the Bulletin in 1901, 'there are scattered here and there hundreds of lively, dreamy Australian girls whose queer uncomprehended ambitions are the despair of the household. They yearn, they aspire for they know not what...' I … Continue reading Friends & Rivals | Brenda Niall #AWWbiography
It has never been my way to say much about my private life. Autobiographies are by their nature completely different beasts to biographies. In a biography, the researcher is keen to unearth the 'real' person, to dig deep into archives, letters, journals and other people's memories. Mostly this is done respectfully to honour the subject's … Continue reading Myself When Young | Henry Handel Richardson #AWWautobiography
I made it! The 941st page of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony by Henry Handel Richardson is read, lamented and sighed over. Not quite in the #AusReadingMonth time frame I originally set out, but a run of bad headaches and vertigo got in the way at the end. Unlike poor Richard Mahony though, my brain … Continue reading The Fortunes of Richard Mahony | Part 3: Ultima Thule
Book two of Henry Handel Richardson's The Fortunes of Richard Mahony trilogy is called The Way Home. A few spoilers will no doubt appear as I ramble my way through this review. So be warned! Spoilers and a ramble - I'm not sure which is worse? The idea of home is one of the major … Continue reading The Fortunes of Richard Mahony | Part 2: The Way Home
"Wife, I've a grave suspicion!" said Mahony, and took her by the chin. "While I've sat here my head in the clouds, you've been worrying over ways and means, and over having such an unpractical old dreamer for a husband. Now, child, that won't do. I didn't marry to have my girl puzzling her little … Continue reading The Fortunes of Richard Mahony | Part 1: Australia Felix
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