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Brief Encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia 1836-1939
Throughout the 19th & 20th centuries, countless distinguished writers made the long and arduous trek to Australia. Discover what DH Lawrence, Joseph Contrad, HG Wells, Agatha Christie and Jack London, Rudyard Kipling and others did when they got here, and what their opinion was of Australia & Australians.
396 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
4 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Susannah Fullerton
25 books22 followersSusannah Fullerton has been President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia since 1996. She is a worldwide authority on Austen's life and fiction, and her books have been praised by Claire Tomalin, Maggie Lane, Deirdre le Faye and Hazel Jones.
She has lived in Australia since 1986 and her book 'Brief Encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia' looks at 11 famous authors who spent time in Australia.
She grew up in New Zealand and her audio CD 'Finding Katherine Mansfield' is the first ever audio CD about New Zealand's greatest writer.
She has lived in Australia since 1986 and her book 'Brief Encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia' looks at 11 famous authors who spent time in Australia.
She grew up in New Zealand and her audio CD 'Finding Katherine Mansfield' is the first ever audio CD about New Zealand's greatest writer.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 3, 2023
What an interesting read, highly recommended. It was wonderfully enlightening to learn so much about some of the well-known authors who have visited Australia. Easily the five-star rating ***** A book I would read again with eagerness, and a definite keeper for the bookshelf.
The Sydney Writers Walk is located at Circular Quay, Sydney, Australia comprising 60 metal plaques set into the pavement. All references to plaques in my review are to this Writers Walk.
Susannah Fullerton, Canadian-born Australian author and literary historian has chosen eleven authors who visited Australia between 1836 and 1939 to memorialise in this book, in which ‘little gems’ of information abound. Charles Darwin, Anthony Trollope, Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain, Jack London, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dame Agatha Christie, DH Lawrence, HG Wells are the lucky ones chosen.
*Charles Darwin, best known for his theories of evolution and natural selection, and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species’ among others, visited Australia in 1836 on the return portion of his voyage around the world in HMS Beagle. He visited again in 1875. Not a fan of gum trees, much preferred Tasmania to New South Wales. The last words Darwin wrote in Australia were negative: “Farewell Australia, you are a rising infant and doubtless some day will reign a great princess in the South. But you are too great and ambitious for affection, yet not great enough for respect; I leave your shores without sorrow or regret.” Later Charles Darwin became more interested in reading and learning as much as he could about Australia, “revising his opinion and coming to view it as a ‘fine country’ which would, before long, become ‘a very great one’.”
Charles Darwin's plaque reads: “This is really a wonderful Colony; ancient Rome, in her Imperial grandeur, would not have been ashamed of such an offspring.”
*Anthony Trollope, one of England’s greatest authors, best-known for his ‘Chronicles of Barsetshire’, visited Australia in 1871/1872. The purpose of his visit was to observe, inspect and compile information for his travel book on Australia and New Zealand. A stretch of river flowing round the bend of Wiseman’s Ferry, New South Wales is named ‘Trollope’s Reach’ in memory of his visit and the picnic he enjoyed there with local dignitaries. He found Australia’s landscape with the everlasting gum tree far from picturesque, and South Australia’s saltbush country came close to his idea of hell. He genuinely believed that for the lower classes, who could work with their hands, Australia was ideal. But the well-educated, gently reared English gentleman should stay comfortably at home.
Anthony Trollope's plaque reads: “The idea that Englishmen ... are made of paste, whereas the Australian, native or thoroughly acclimatized, is steel all through, I found to be universal.”
*Joseph Conrad, a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Among his notable works are ‘Lord Jim’ and ‘Heart of Darkness’.
Visited Australian ports in 1879, 1892, 1893. Between 1876 and 1893, Conrad was a sailor, serving first in the French and then in the British merchant marine. Joseph Conrad retained “the warmest regard for Australians generally, for New South Wales in particular and for charming Sydney especially”.
Joseph Conrad's plaque reads: “Sydney Harbour ... one of the finest, most beautiful, vast, and safe bays the sun had ever shone upon.”
*Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish born, visited Sydney, Australia four times between February 1890 and March 1893. He had no desire to see more of Australia. “He loved meeting oddities who could inspire characters in his novels”. It was Scotland that gave RLS inspiration for his novels, Australia sadly lacking inspiration. Among his notable works are ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’.
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move” - Robert Louis Stevenson
“Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.” - Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson's plaque reads: “…there is material for a dozen buccaneering stories to be picked up in the hotels at Circular Quay.”
*Rudyard Kipling, born in India, an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. A brief stay in Sydney in 1891, notable works are ‘Jungle Book’, published 1894 (which Rudyard Kipling dedicated to his eldest child, Josephine, aged one at the time. Sadly Josephine died at the young age of six, succumbing to pneumonia), and 'Kim' published 1901.
Kipling’s 1891 two-week visit to Australia left him unenthusiastic about Australians. He found they were “direct of speech, ‘a bit on edge’, and would do wonderful things someday, but in the meantime were too busy having picnics”. This opinion of Australians later changed when Rudyard Kipling fought alongside Aussie soldiers in the Boer War. “He left us with a rich legacy– an ode, the beautiful poem ‘Lichtenberg’ and in his short story ‘The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo’ a delightful explanation of how Australia’s most memorable animal, the kangaroo, came to look the way it does.”
Rudyard Kipling's plaque reads: “Sydney....was populated by leisured multitudes all in their shirt-sleeves and all picknicking all the day. They volunteered that they were new and young but would do wonderful things some day.”
*Mark Twain (pen name), born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Missouri, USA was an American writer, humourist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his notable works ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’. Arrived in Australia in 1895 for a period of eight weeks. “Always polite in praising the Australian landscape and its animals, responding with cordiality to the thousands of people he met around the country. He left Australia’s shores with no intention to ever return”.
Mark Twain's plaque reads: “Australian history is almost always picturesque, indeed it is so curious and strange, that it is itself the chiefest novelty the country has to offer. It does not read like history but like the most beautiful lies. And all of a fresh sort, not mouldy old stale ones. It is full of surprises, and adventures and incongruities, and incredibilities, but they are all true, they all happened.”
*Jack London (pen name), born John Griffith Chaney in California, USA. An American novelist, journalist and social activist. Among his notable works ‘The Call of the Wild’ and ‘White Fang’. In 1908 Jack London was one of the most famous writers in the world. Arrived in Australia late 1907. In 1907 introduced the sport of surfing to American readers and helped to popularise surfing internationally. “He is Mercury – a brown Mercury. His heels are winged, and in them is the swiftness of the sea.” – Jack London’s description of a surfer in Hawaii.
Jack London's plaque reads: “I would rather be ashes than dust, a spark burnt out in a brilliant blaze, than be stifled in dry rot . . . For man's chief purpose is to live, not to exist; I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them; I shall use my time.”
*Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scottish writer and physician, created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887. Arrived in Australia in 1920 for a 3-month stay to preach Spiritualism, of which he was an ardent follower, regularly seeking out psychics and mediums and participating in seances. He later became president of the International Spiritualist Association.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's plaque reads: “We all devoted ourselves to surf-bathing, spending a good deal of our day in the water as is the custom of the place. It is a real romp with Nature, for the great Pacific rollers come sweeping in and break over you, rolling you over on the sand if they can catch you unawares. It was a golden patch in our restless lives.”
*Dame Agatha Christie, the ‘Queen of Crime’, a British novelist and excellent pianist. Outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap. She is the most translated novelist of all time. Agatha’s favourite fruit was the apple, which she liked to munch on while writing her novels. Visited Australia with her husband who had been employed to take part in a Mission whose purpose was to promote a forthcoming ‘Empire Exhibition’ to be held in London in 1924 as a showcase for the products of the British Empire. Constantly fascinated by the “silvery-blue gums” and other colours of the bush. Not a fan of the ‘Aussie’ accent. “Agatha’s portrayal of Australians in her novels is a snapshot of how they were generally viewed in England at that time, not, in general how she had found them to be while she was in Australia. Botany Bay was still casting a long shadow when Agatha Christie began to write in the 1920s, and in the minds of many, Australia was the land of criminals”. Shortly before her death Agatha had written that New Zealand was the most beautiful country she had ever seen. “Its scenery is extraordinary”.
Sadly and incomprehensibly, there is no plaque for Agatha Christie.
*D. H. Lawrence, an English writer and poet, author of ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’. Married a baroness, the cousin of the famous air-ace, Baron von Richthofen, historically known as the ‘Red Baron’. Visited Australia in 1922, staying for 99 days.
D. H. Lawrence's plaque reads: “Australia has a marvellous sky and air and blue clarity and a hoary sort of land beneath is, like a Sleeping Princess on whom the dust of ages has settled. Wonder if she'll ever get up.”
*H G Wells, A ‘father of science fiction’, a generous philanthropist, a friend of Maxim Gorky (controversial Russian author and revolutionary). Founder and president of the Diabetic Association in United Kingdom (now Diabetes UK) a mild diabetic himself. In his lifetime known as ‘The Man who Invented Tomorrow’ and was an influential writer of the early twentieth century. Two of his best-known novels ‘The Time Machine’ and ‘War of the Worlds’. Aged 72 years, in Australia by invitation, to address the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) conference, held in Canberra in January 1939. Thought the six o’clock closing for pubs was a barbaric idea; interviewers who had not bothered to read his books made him cross; and he was unimpressed by the Australian mania for horseracing and by their wasting money on betting. HG Wells had been Vice President of the Abortion Law Reform Society in England for some years, rarely losing an opportunity to push his view that abortion needed to be legalised.
H G Wells impactful description of a bush fire, which he witnessed while visiting the devastated areas of the fires roaring around the outskirts of Canberra in January 1939, the best I’ve ever read, sums it up perfectly:
“A bush fire is not an orderly invader, but a guerrilla. It advances by rushes, by little venomous tongues of fire in the grass; it spreads by sparks burning leaves and bark. Its front is miles deep. It is here, it is there, like a swarm of venomous wasps. It shams dead and stabs you in the back. It encircles you so that there is no sure line of flight for its threatened victims.”
“Our true nationality is mankind” - HG Wells
Hard to believe, there is no memorial plaque for H G Wells at Circular Quay.
Both Charles Darwin and Anthony Trollope were passionate hunters. Charles Darwin, in his youth, shooting anything that moved, and Anthony Trollope chasing and shooting foxes at least three times per week, the only ‘sport’ that had ever interested him, and he participated in a kangaroo hunt while visiting Australia. A sign of the times, but I was astounded to learn this about Charles Darwin in particular.
If interested in viewing the plaques online, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_...
References used in this review:
https://www.agathachristie.com (The Home of Agatha Christie)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk (Rudyard Kipling)
https://www.theinertia.com/surf(Jack London)
https://en.wikipedia.org
The Sydney Writers Walk is located at Circular Quay, Sydney, Australia comprising 60 metal plaques set into the pavement. All references to plaques in my review are to this Writers Walk.
Susannah Fullerton, Canadian-born Australian author and literary historian has chosen eleven authors who visited Australia between 1836 and 1939 to memorialise in this book, in which ‘little gems’ of information abound. Charles Darwin, Anthony Trollope, Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain, Jack London, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dame Agatha Christie, DH Lawrence, HG Wells are the lucky ones chosen.
*Charles Darwin, best known for his theories of evolution and natural selection, and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species’ among others, visited Australia in 1836 on the return portion of his voyage around the world in HMS Beagle. He visited again in 1875. Not a fan of gum trees, much preferred Tasmania to New South Wales. The last words Darwin wrote in Australia were negative: “Farewell Australia, you are a rising infant and doubtless some day will reign a great princess in the South. But you are too great and ambitious for affection, yet not great enough for respect; I leave your shores without sorrow or regret.” Later Charles Darwin became more interested in reading and learning as much as he could about Australia, “revising his opinion and coming to view it as a ‘fine country’ which would, before long, become ‘a very great one’.”
Charles Darwin's plaque reads: “This is really a wonderful Colony; ancient Rome, in her Imperial grandeur, would not have been ashamed of such an offspring.”
*Anthony Trollope, one of England’s greatest authors, best-known for his ‘Chronicles of Barsetshire’, visited Australia in 1871/1872. The purpose of his visit was to observe, inspect and compile information for his travel book on Australia and New Zealand. A stretch of river flowing round the bend of Wiseman’s Ferry, New South Wales is named ‘Trollope’s Reach’ in memory of his visit and the picnic he enjoyed there with local dignitaries. He found Australia’s landscape with the everlasting gum tree far from picturesque, and South Australia’s saltbush country came close to his idea of hell. He genuinely believed that for the lower classes, who could work with their hands, Australia was ideal. But the well-educated, gently reared English gentleman should stay comfortably at home.
Anthony Trollope's plaque reads: “The idea that Englishmen ... are made of paste, whereas the Australian, native or thoroughly acclimatized, is steel all through, I found to be universal.”
*Joseph Conrad, a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Among his notable works are ‘Lord Jim’ and ‘Heart of Darkness’.
Visited Australian ports in 1879, 1892, 1893. Between 1876 and 1893, Conrad was a sailor, serving first in the French and then in the British merchant marine. Joseph Conrad retained “the warmest regard for Australians generally, for New South Wales in particular and for charming Sydney especially”.
Joseph Conrad's plaque reads: “Sydney Harbour ... one of the finest, most beautiful, vast, and safe bays the sun had ever shone upon.”
*Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish born, visited Sydney, Australia four times between February 1890 and March 1893. He had no desire to see more of Australia. “He loved meeting oddities who could inspire characters in his novels”. It was Scotland that gave RLS inspiration for his novels, Australia sadly lacking inspiration. Among his notable works are ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’.
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move” - Robert Louis Stevenson
“Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.” - Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson's plaque reads: “…there is material for a dozen buccaneering stories to be picked up in the hotels at Circular Quay.”
*Rudyard Kipling, born in India, an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. A brief stay in Sydney in 1891, notable works are ‘Jungle Book’, published 1894 (which Rudyard Kipling dedicated to his eldest child, Josephine, aged one at the time. Sadly Josephine died at the young age of six, succumbing to pneumonia), and 'Kim' published 1901.
Kipling’s 1891 two-week visit to Australia left him unenthusiastic about Australians. He found they were “direct of speech, ‘a bit on edge’, and would do wonderful things someday, but in the meantime were too busy having picnics”. This opinion of Australians later changed when Rudyard Kipling fought alongside Aussie soldiers in the Boer War. “He left us with a rich legacy– an ode, the beautiful poem ‘Lichtenberg’ and in his short story ‘The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo’ a delightful explanation of how Australia’s most memorable animal, the kangaroo, came to look the way it does.”
Rudyard Kipling's plaque reads: “Sydney....was populated by leisured multitudes all in their shirt-sleeves and all picknicking all the day. They volunteered that they were new and young but would do wonderful things some day.”
*Mark Twain (pen name), born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Missouri, USA was an American writer, humourist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his notable works ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’. Arrived in Australia in 1895 for a period of eight weeks. “Always polite in praising the Australian landscape and its animals, responding with cordiality to the thousands of people he met around the country. He left Australia’s shores with no intention to ever return”.
Mark Twain's plaque reads: “Australian history is almost always picturesque, indeed it is so curious and strange, that it is itself the chiefest novelty the country has to offer. It does not read like history but like the most beautiful lies. And all of a fresh sort, not mouldy old stale ones. It is full of surprises, and adventures and incongruities, and incredibilities, but they are all true, they all happened.”
*Jack London (pen name), born John Griffith Chaney in California, USA. An American novelist, journalist and social activist. Among his notable works ‘The Call of the Wild’ and ‘White Fang’. In 1908 Jack London was one of the most famous writers in the world. Arrived in Australia late 1907. In 1907 introduced the sport of surfing to American readers and helped to popularise surfing internationally. “He is Mercury – a brown Mercury. His heels are winged, and in them is the swiftness of the sea.” – Jack London’s description of a surfer in Hawaii.
Jack London's plaque reads: “I would rather be ashes than dust, a spark burnt out in a brilliant blaze, than be stifled in dry rot . . . For man's chief purpose is to live, not to exist; I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them; I shall use my time.”
*Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scottish writer and physician, created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887. Arrived in Australia in 1920 for a 3-month stay to preach Spiritualism, of which he was an ardent follower, regularly seeking out psychics and mediums and participating in seances. He later became president of the International Spiritualist Association.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's plaque reads: “We all devoted ourselves to surf-bathing, spending a good deal of our day in the water as is the custom of the place. It is a real romp with Nature, for the great Pacific rollers come sweeping in and break over you, rolling you over on the sand if they can catch you unawares. It was a golden patch in our restless lives.”
*Dame Agatha Christie, the ‘Queen of Crime’, a British novelist and excellent pianist. Outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap. She is the most translated novelist of all time. Agatha’s favourite fruit was the apple, which she liked to munch on while writing her novels. Visited Australia with her husband who had been employed to take part in a Mission whose purpose was to promote a forthcoming ‘Empire Exhibition’ to be held in London in 1924 as a showcase for the products of the British Empire. Constantly fascinated by the “silvery-blue gums” and other colours of the bush. Not a fan of the ‘Aussie’ accent. “Agatha’s portrayal of Australians in her novels is a snapshot of how they were generally viewed in England at that time, not, in general how she had found them to be while she was in Australia. Botany Bay was still casting a long shadow when Agatha Christie began to write in the 1920s, and in the minds of many, Australia was the land of criminals”. Shortly before her death Agatha had written that New Zealand was the most beautiful country she had ever seen. “Its scenery is extraordinary”.
Sadly and incomprehensibly, there is no plaque for Agatha Christie.
*D. H. Lawrence, an English writer and poet, author of ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’. Married a baroness, the cousin of the famous air-ace, Baron von Richthofen, historically known as the ‘Red Baron’. Visited Australia in 1922, staying for 99 days.
D. H. Lawrence's plaque reads: “Australia has a marvellous sky and air and blue clarity and a hoary sort of land beneath is, like a Sleeping Princess on whom the dust of ages has settled. Wonder if she'll ever get up.”
*H G Wells, A ‘father of science fiction’, a generous philanthropist, a friend of Maxim Gorky (controversial Russian author and revolutionary). Founder and president of the Diabetic Association in United Kingdom (now Diabetes UK) a mild diabetic himself. In his lifetime known as ‘The Man who Invented Tomorrow’ and was an influential writer of the early twentieth century. Two of his best-known novels ‘The Time Machine’ and ‘War of the Worlds’. Aged 72 years, in Australia by invitation, to address the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) conference, held in Canberra in January 1939. Thought the six o’clock closing for pubs was a barbaric idea; interviewers who had not bothered to read his books made him cross; and he was unimpressed by the Australian mania for horseracing and by their wasting money on betting. HG Wells had been Vice President of the Abortion Law Reform Society in England for some years, rarely losing an opportunity to push his view that abortion needed to be legalised.
H G Wells impactful description of a bush fire, which he witnessed while visiting the devastated areas of the fires roaring around the outskirts of Canberra in January 1939, the best I’ve ever read, sums it up perfectly:
“A bush fire is not an orderly invader, but a guerrilla. It advances by rushes, by little venomous tongues of fire in the grass; it spreads by sparks burning leaves and bark. Its front is miles deep. It is here, it is there, like a swarm of venomous wasps. It shams dead and stabs you in the back. It encircles you so that there is no sure line of flight for its threatened victims.”
“Our true nationality is mankind” - HG Wells
Hard to believe, there is no memorial plaque for H G Wells at Circular Quay.
Both Charles Darwin and Anthony Trollope were passionate hunters. Charles Darwin, in his youth, shooting anything that moved, and Anthony Trollope chasing and shooting foxes at least three times per week, the only ‘sport’ that had ever interested him, and he participated in a kangaroo hunt while visiting Australia. A sign of the times, but I was astounded to learn this about Charles Darwin in particular.
If interested in viewing the plaques online, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_...
References used in this review:
https://www.agathachristie.com (The Home of Agatha Christie)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk (Rudyard Kipling)
https://www.theinertia.com/surf(Jack London)
https://en.wikipedia.org
November 6, 2020
En route to our holiday in the Hunter Valley, The Spouse and I took two books of interest to literary tourists: the Oxford Literary Guide to Australia, (Revised Edition 1993) by Peter Pierce, and Brief Encounters, Literary Travellers in Australia 1836-1939 by Susannah Fullerton.
The Oxford Guide might be a useful reference if you know the geography of the area through which you travel, but it wasn’t much use to me as we drove up the Hume Highway from Melbourne to Sydney. As a good national route should, the Hume bypasses almost everything and unless you’ve plodded through the Guide beforehand and identified which towns warrant taking an exit, chances are you’ll miss any literary sights altogether. (As we did). The Guide is arranged by State, but not by routes, so for New South Wales that means browsing 120 pages to find which towns lie along the route, and then which of those have authors of any interest.
The Editor, Peter Pierce, has spurned all but Australian writers, so you won’t find any mention of Joseph Conrad’s boat in Tassie, or Charles Darwin’s adventures in the Blue Mountains, though there are references to lots of obscure poets and playwrights amongst the better known authors. However, even when you do discover something you might like to see, there are no addresses or directions to tell you how to get there, so we left our overnight stopover in Yass without seeing the Memorial Banjo Paterson Park at Wee Jasper. (Paterson lived at Illalong Station in his childhood, went to a bush school at Binalong, and went into partnership with R.S. Lindeman of Lindeman’s Wines in 1915).
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2010/01/15/b...
The Oxford Guide might be a useful reference if you know the geography of the area through which you travel, but it wasn’t much use to me as we drove up the Hume Highway from Melbourne to Sydney. As a good national route should, the Hume bypasses almost everything and unless you’ve plodded through the Guide beforehand and identified which towns warrant taking an exit, chances are you’ll miss any literary sights altogether. (As we did). The Guide is arranged by State, but not by routes, so for New South Wales that means browsing 120 pages to find which towns lie along the route, and then which of those have authors of any interest.
The Editor, Peter Pierce, has spurned all but Australian writers, so you won’t find any mention of Joseph Conrad’s boat in Tassie, or Charles Darwin’s adventures in the Blue Mountains, though there are references to lots of obscure poets and playwrights amongst the better known authors. However, even when you do discover something you might like to see, there are no addresses or directions to tell you how to get there, so we left our overnight stopover in Yass without seeing the Memorial Banjo Paterson Park at Wee Jasper. (Paterson lived at Illalong Station in his childhood, went to a bush school at Binalong, and went into partnership with R.S. Lindeman of Lindeman’s Wines in 1915).
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2010/01/15/b...
April 9, 2024
A pleasant enough read about how famous authors came and responded to Australia- how they interacted,influenced and were influenced by this new country.I particularly liked HG Wells’ provocative views which annoyed the locals but time proved right;DHLawrences restless but insightful time at Thirroul,Trollope’s vigorous enjoyment of everything;Darwin’s comments;Jack London’s racial views on the Jack Johnson boxing match against Tommy Burns;Kipling’s admiration of Aussies in the Boer War.
August 27, 2024
This was a fascinating book. I learned so much about my own country's history, through the eyes of most interesting authors. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews