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An Older Kind of Magic
Three Australian children discover ancient magical creatures living under the streets of the city.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
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141 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Wrightson
49 books24 followersWinner of the Dromkeen Medal (1984).
Patricia Wrightson is one of Australia's most distinguished writers for children. Her books have won many prestigious awards all over the world. She was awarded an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in 1977, the Dromkeen Medal in 1984 and the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1986, all for her services to children's literature. She is a four-time winner of the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award: in 1956 for The Crooked Snake, in 1974 for The Nargun and the Stars, in 1978 for The Ice Is Coming and in 1984 for A Little Fear. Patricia lives and writes in a beautiful stretch of the Australian bush beside the Clarence River in northern New South Wales.
Patricia Wrightson is one of Australia's most distinguished writers for children. Her books have won many prestigious awards all over the world. She was awarded an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in 1977, the Dromkeen Medal in 1984 and the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1986, all for her services to children's literature. She is a four-time winner of the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award: in 1956 for The Crooked Snake, in 1974 for The Nargun and the Stars, in 1978 for The Ice Is Coming and in 1984 for A Little Fear. Patricia lives and writes in a beautiful stretch of the Australian bush beside the Clarence River in northern New South Wales.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 11, 2016
Years ago, when I was writing an article about the great Bidjigal warrior Pemulwuy for The School Magazine, a fellow from the Aboriginal education unit told me—well, he told me many things, but the one that stayed with me was the idea that the Land will always remain true to itself. It must have been about exactly 20 years ago, because it was after the Port Arthur massacre, and he told me how that Land had always been a place of blood to its original people, and that it had come as no surprise to them that, if such a thing were to happen in Tasmania, that is where they would expect it to be.
The Land that we Sydney folk call the Botanical Gardens was, he also told me, a place of ceremony, and so sacred that even the blundering white invaders instinctively felt its power and left it untouched, and undeveloped, despite its prime Harbourside location that would make someone beyond a fortune if it were ever sold off.
I don't know if Patricia Wrightson was ever told this, but if she wasn't, then she too was clearly sensitive to its significance: at the heart of An Older Kind of Magic is the intention of a wealthy man, who owns department stores and newspapers and television stations (but not, it is true, a casino), to reclaim the Gardens for car parks, for in his estimation, the City will die without cars.
One of the things I have been discussing with my supervisor Brooke (she is my co-supervisor and an Aboriginal woman) is how, for Australia's First Nations people, time is not a line, but a cloth that folds in and over upon itself.
I feel a little like I was folded into that cloth today, reading a novel I last read probably 40 or more years ago, and finding how much I remembered of it, and mapping it over a city I know so well, and remembering the stories and knowledge my Aboriginal friends and colleagues have been so generous in sharing with me over the years.
This is why literature is my heart, and why, when I remember it, I love study and research so much.
The Land that we Sydney folk call the Botanical Gardens was, he also told me, a place of ceremony, and so sacred that even the blundering white invaders instinctively felt its power and left it untouched, and undeveloped, despite its prime Harbourside location that would make someone beyond a fortune if it were ever sold off.
I don't know if Patricia Wrightson was ever told this, but if she wasn't, then she too was clearly sensitive to its significance: at the heart of An Older Kind of Magic is the intention of a wealthy man, who owns department stores and newspapers and television stations (but not, it is true, a casino), to reclaim the Gardens for car parks, for in his estimation, the City will die without cars.
One of the things I have been discussing with my supervisor Brooke (she is my co-supervisor and an Aboriginal woman) is how, for Australia's First Nations people, time is not a line, but a cloth that folds in and over upon itself.
I feel a little like I was folded into that cloth today, reading a novel I last read probably 40 or more years ago, and finding how much I remembered of it, and mapping it over a city I know so well, and remembering the stories and knowledge my Aboriginal friends and colleagues have been so generous in sharing with me over the years.
This is why literature is my heart, and why, when I remember it, I love study and research so much.
July 30, 2013
The goodreads blurb is a little misleading -- the children are never really aware of the supernatural creatures, and to the supernatural creatures the children stand out only minimally from the many others who visit the Sidney Gardens. I liked this, actually; it was more original and natural-feeling than the rather overused children-stumble-upon-secret-whatever plotline. I also liked Wrightson's use of native rather than imported mythical beasties. She gives some notes at the end for further reading on this mythology, which is probably unfamiliar to non-Australian readers.
January 22, 2015
Absolutely enjoyable, once I got past the first half dozen pages that was setting the scene and I was feeling like I was reading a Famous Five book again, especially as we were introduced to the young female character Selina. The 2 young boys and the older brother were described as doing exciting and adventurous things and the heroes in the making, a bit of annoying gender bias that comes from this book being published in 1972. Personal gripe, I nearly screamed aloud each time Selina had to set the table and do the dishes while the boys roamed free, but that is this die-hard feminist mind in action, I was screaming out loud in person in1972 and earlier about such inequalities in a young girls life.
To the story, mystical and cheeky and slightly creepy beings living under Sydney. Creatures who have been there for 10s of 1000s of years. Animals wandering the city, magicians and crooked businessmen, how could you not be enthralled. And what a weaver of a tale was Patricia Wrightson, wow. I made a note as I read, that it was clever, clever social commentary on business, the environment and politics and that nothing had changed from the 70s until today.
I enjoyed the epilogue that explains the fairy beings and will quote a section of that:
The Edge Of Vision
We are growing very wise and learned - but still, at the edge of our knowledge, there are things we only half understand. We may have the keenest and clearest sight-but still there is a place, at the edge of our vision, that we can only half see. These are the areas, in mind and in vision, that have always been haunted by magic. They are still haunted; for were not the astronauts on their way to the moon 'followed' by something mysterious?
That is why magic has still a real and important place in out stories-most real when the magic is dark, mysterious, and a little frightening, as it always was. And the magic must be real I place, as well as in kind, for men were never stupidly gullible. The spirits they saw at the edge of their vision were shaped by something real: by the swirling if the snow, the darkness of a pool, or the terror of a mountain.
Those if us who were bred in the old land and live in the new have found this out. We have tried to plant here the magic that our people knew, and it will not grow. It is time we stopped trying to see elves and dragons and unicorns in Australia. They have never be,inked here, and no ingenuity can make them real. We need to look for another kind of magic, a kind that must have been shaped by the land itself at the edge of Australian vision.
So I have tried in a small way. I have pictures Pot-Koorok, Nyol and Net-Net, unsuspected in their own water or rock: creeping from tunnels and drains into our streets; never seen, but perhaps to spring out at us some day. I have put beside them for contrast a shabbier, pretended magic that has shrunk to an advertising gimmick and is real for only a moment in a thousand years..................
Back to the review, I did not grow up with Patricia Wrightson stories, but came across her through a book called The Wrightson List, recommended to me from the AIATSIS Library with a comprehensive listing and cross reference to mystical creatures researched by Patricia Wrightson. She did this at the end of her writing career to show people the origins, the country these beings belong, the nation they are part of the storylines. I was fascinated by this collection and thought I better have a look at the fiction she produced from knowing about these beings.
Enjoyed this book hugely. Will hunt a few more of her magical stories out and enjoy being carried back to the adventure of childhood.
To the story, mystical and cheeky and slightly creepy beings living under Sydney. Creatures who have been there for 10s of 1000s of years. Animals wandering the city, magicians and crooked businessmen, how could you not be enthralled. And what a weaver of a tale was Patricia Wrightson, wow. I made a note as I read, that it was clever, clever social commentary on business, the environment and politics and that nothing had changed from the 70s until today.
I enjoyed the epilogue that explains the fairy beings and will quote a section of that:
The Edge Of Vision
We are growing very wise and learned - but still, at the edge of our knowledge, there are things we only half understand. We may have the keenest and clearest sight-but still there is a place, at the edge of our vision, that we can only half see. These are the areas, in mind and in vision, that have always been haunted by magic. They are still haunted; for were not the astronauts on their way to the moon 'followed' by something mysterious?
That is why magic has still a real and important place in out stories-most real when the magic is dark, mysterious, and a little frightening, as it always was. And the magic must be real I place, as well as in kind, for men were never stupidly gullible. The spirits they saw at the edge of their vision were shaped by something real: by the swirling if the snow, the darkness of a pool, or the terror of a mountain.
Those if us who were bred in the old land and live in the new have found this out. We have tried to plant here the magic that our people knew, and it will not grow. It is time we stopped trying to see elves and dragons and unicorns in Australia. They have never be,inked here, and no ingenuity can make them real. We need to look for another kind of magic, a kind that must have been shaped by the land itself at the edge of Australian vision.
So I have tried in a small way. I have pictures Pot-Koorok, Nyol and Net-Net, unsuspected in their own water or rock: creeping from tunnels and drains into our streets; never seen, but perhaps to spring out at us some day. I have put beside them for contrast a shabbier, pretended magic that has shrunk to an advertising gimmick and is real for only a moment in a thousand years..................
Back to the review, I did not grow up with Patricia Wrightson stories, but came across her through a book called The Wrightson List, recommended to me from the AIATSIS Library with a comprehensive listing and cross reference to mystical creatures researched by Patricia Wrightson. She did this at the end of her writing career to show people the origins, the country these beings belong, the nation they are part of the storylines. I was fascinated by this collection and thought I better have a look at the fiction she produced from knowing about these beings.
Enjoyed this book hugely. Will hunt a few more of her magical stories out and enjoy being carried back to the adventure of childhood.
May 30, 2014
This was my favourite book that I read as a child, wonderful.
November 23, 2014
Some children are playing in the natural surroundings found within Sydney, unaware that the ancient creatures will wake and move around. These include pot-koorocks and bunyips. There is a real feeling for the native environment which has been covered in concrete and steel.
The author wrote the excellent 'The Nargun And The Stars' and 'The Bunyip Hole' all for young adults.
The author wrote the excellent 'The Nargun And The Stars' and 'The Bunyip Hole' all for young adults.
November 23, 2014
"For stone is stone; and men whose drills break into the living stone should take care. They may find what they do not expect." - p149
If Patricia was still alive, I think she'd be hanging out at the Anti-Coal Seam Gas protests with Lock The Gate. Maybe holding up a sign that says, "Always Was. Always Will Be. Aboriginal land." Yeah :)
If Patricia was still alive, I think she'd be hanging out at the Anti-Coal Seam Gas protests with Lock The Gate. Maybe holding up a sign that says, "Always Was. Always Will Be. Aboriginal land." Yeah :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2017
This Australian children's author isn't well known in this country. Australian magic is like no other-- primeval and linked to the land.
October 23, 2016
A beloved book from my childhood, revisited for pure pleasure.
November 27, 2023
A magical tale targeting young readers based on the adventures of 3 children living in a residential CBD Sydney near the Botanical Gardens. A nostalgic read for me; memories of a Sydney that no longer exists.
November 15, 2025
14 year old me thought this Australian children's story of ancient magical creatures living under the streets, was just ok. Could have been better written and better plot.
November 26, 2012
My very cool Aunt Anne often bought me awesome kids' books; this was one of them. I recently decided to reread it and it's surprisingly pro-environment/pro-Aboriginal-knowledge. Cool!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews