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A Man Called Masters
For Penny, coming to Masters’ cattle station is like coming home. After years in the city, she is back in the desert country where she spent the happiest years of her childhood.
The only cloud on her horizon is Masters. Handsome, but silent and as cold as ice, her new employer frightens Penny—and fascinates her...
The only cloud on her horizon is Masters. Handsome, but silent and as cold as ice, her new employer frightens Penny—and fascinates her...
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 12, 1973
47 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Lucy Walker
102 books27 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Lucy Walker (1907–1987) was the most famous of a few pseudonyms used by Dorothy Lucie Sanders (née McClemans). She was born in Boulder, Western Australia, on 4 May 1907. Her father was of Irish stock, a minister of the Church of England. Her mother was from New Zealand. Dorothy began writing at an early age, despite her father’s scepticism about her ability.
A qualified teacher from Perth College (1928), she taught in state schools in Western Australia until 1936. She continued teaching later in London while her husband, a fellow school teacher whom she married in 1936, completed his doctorate in education.
They returned to Perth, Australia in 1938 but Dorothy Lucie Sanders only began her writing in 1945, producing articles, short stories, and later novels. In 1948 her first novel, Fairies on the Doorstep, was published.
As Lucy Walker, she wrote about 39 romance books:
Fairies On the Doorstep (1948)
Who Leaves the Crowd (1952)
The One Who Kisses (1954)
Sweet and Faraway (1955)
Come Home Dear (1956)
Heaven is Here (1957)
Master of Ransome (1958)
Kingdom of the heart (1959)
The Stranger from the North (1959)
Love in a Cloud (1960)
The Loving Heart (1960)
The Moonshiner (1961)
Wife to Order (1961)
The Distant Hills (1962)
Down in the Forest (1962)
The Call of the Pines (1963)
Follow Your Star (1963)
The Man from Outback (1964)
Reaching for the Stars (1964)
A Man Called Masters (1965)
The Other Girl (1965)
The Ranger in the Hills (1966)
The River Is Down (1967)
Home at Sundown (1968)
The Gone-Away Man (1969)
Shining River (1969)
Six for Heaven (1969)
Joyday for Jodi (1971)
The Bell Branch (1971)
The Mountain That Went to the Sea (1971)
Ribbons In Her Hair (1972)
Pepper Tree Bay (1972)
Pool of Dreams (1973)
Girl Alone (1973)
Monday in Summer (1973)
Runaway Girl (1975)
Gamma's Girl (1977)
So Much Love (1977)
These romance novels were very successful in Australia and overseas. The stories were meticulously researched; the writer travelled extensively in the Western Australian outback, recording details of scenery, personalities and social customs in her notebooks and diaries.
Other pseudonyms used by this author: Shelley Dean, Dorothy Lucie Sanders, and Lucy Walker.
Dorothy Lucie Sanders was widowed in 1986 and died the following year. Her daughter and two sons survived her.
Lucy Walker (1907–1987) was the most famous of a few pseudonyms used by Dorothy Lucie Sanders (née McClemans). She was born in Boulder, Western Australia, on 4 May 1907. Her father was of Irish stock, a minister of the Church of England. Her mother was from New Zealand. Dorothy began writing at an early age, despite her father’s scepticism about her ability.
A qualified teacher from Perth College (1928), she taught in state schools in Western Australia until 1936. She continued teaching later in London while her husband, a fellow school teacher whom she married in 1936, completed his doctorate in education.
They returned to Perth, Australia in 1938 but Dorothy Lucie Sanders only began her writing in 1945, producing articles, short stories, and later novels. In 1948 her first novel, Fairies on the Doorstep, was published.
As Lucy Walker, she wrote about 39 romance books:
Fairies On the Doorstep (1948)
Who Leaves the Crowd (1952)
The One Who Kisses (1954)
Sweet and Faraway (1955)
Come Home Dear (1956)
Heaven is Here (1957)
Master of Ransome (1958)
Kingdom of the heart (1959)
The Stranger from the North (1959)
Love in a Cloud (1960)
The Loving Heart (1960)
The Moonshiner (1961)
Wife to Order (1961)
The Distant Hills (1962)
Down in the Forest (1962)
The Call of the Pines (1963)
Follow Your Star (1963)
The Man from Outback (1964)
Reaching for the Stars (1964)
A Man Called Masters (1965)
The Other Girl (1965)
The Ranger in the Hills (1966)
The River Is Down (1967)
Home at Sundown (1968)
The Gone-Away Man (1969)
Shining River (1969)
Six for Heaven (1969)
Joyday for Jodi (1971)
The Bell Branch (1971)
The Mountain That Went to the Sea (1971)
Ribbons In Her Hair (1972)
Pepper Tree Bay (1972)
Pool of Dreams (1973)
Girl Alone (1973)
Monday in Summer (1973)
Runaway Girl (1975)
Gamma's Girl (1977)
So Much Love (1977)
These romance novels were very successful in Australia and overseas. The stories were meticulously researched; the writer travelled extensively in the Western Australian outback, recording details of scenery, personalities and social customs in her notebooks and diaries.
Other pseudonyms used by this author: Shelley Dean, Dorothy Lucie Sanders, and Lucy Walker.
Dorothy Lucie Sanders was widowed in 1986 and died the following year. Her daughter and two sons survived her.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 9, 2015
This is The Book that started me reading romance. Written in 1963, it is naïve and not really even that much of a romance by today's standards. It's understated and fairly pale, romance-wise, but with a tremendous love of the outback coming through. It's set in the vast cattle regions of Western Australia, on a station that just might also be sitting on gold. Penny Watson has flown in as a sort of nanny cum 'civilizer' for the station children. Stoic and silent, Masters is the man who captures her heart. Rereading this nearly fifty years after the first time it still has magic, and a lovely sweetness that makes the heart sigh. I'm going to keep my childhood copy.
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January 22, 2022Hoo, boy. I have a hard time considering this to be a romance novel or romantic book or a book or depiction of any sort of life I would like to live vicariously. The heroine is besotted with the hero; however, he seems to barely see her because he is so focused on making a living on his land. She has signed on for a life of incredibly hard work for a man who has really shown her almost no indication that he has affection for her or that he would be interested in having a future with her.
This one really depressed me.
This one really depressed me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2020
One of the most reticent heroes you will find in a romantic tale. He doesn't talk at all, not even at the mandatory end of the book, to say "I love you" !!! Never mind. The girl does all the talking to compensate.
The poor girl comes to work for the hero's remote outback station as a teacher, companion to the outback kids. A couple of the hero'es kids are also among them. Aged around 12-14. And the heroine is 20 !!! I am not comfortable with stories where the hero'es kids are almost the heroine's age.
The guy is the silent, enduring, wanderer type. Takes care of the people around him, loves his animals, a true outback man. His wife was the regular worldly type, she refused to come to the back of beyond and live with him. She was more interested in the prospects of finding gold at the hero'es station. End result - she dies in an accident looking for that gold.
The heroine takes one look at the hero and decides that her heart is racing away. I couldn't relate to the hero being that sort of babe magnet. Anyway, if that's how she feels, whom am I to complain !?!?#!.
The hero doesn't do much to show his interest in her. But they do spend a couple of days in a deep ravine. When the girl accidentally slips into one and the gallant hero comes to rescue her. A good cozy time, nothing romantic in the least, but it did have a sense of companionship, oneness of mind.
There are a few OMs and one other OW thrown in. Nothing noteworthy. A good show of support characters, simple hard working ranchers.
Finally, the station gets destroyed in a landslide, the houses are gone, the gold is all buried. Nothing left to live for. Its time to move on ...
The heroine tries to leave the place when the rest of the people leave. But she takes one look back at the brooding hero sitting alone on the footsteps of his deserted home. And she comes running back. He holds her tight in his arms. End of story !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the hell ?? I read through 200 pages for this ???
The poor girl comes to work for the hero's remote outback station as a teacher, companion to the outback kids. A couple of the hero'es kids are also among them. Aged around 12-14. And the heroine is 20 !!! I am not comfortable with stories where the hero'es kids are almost the heroine's age.
The guy is the silent, enduring, wanderer type. Takes care of the people around him, loves his animals, a true outback man. His wife was the regular worldly type, she refused to come to the back of beyond and live with him. She was more interested in the prospects of finding gold at the hero'es station. End result - she dies in an accident looking for that gold.
The heroine takes one look at the hero and decides that her heart is racing away. I couldn't relate to the hero being that sort of babe magnet. Anyway, if that's how she feels, whom am I to complain !?!?#!.
The hero doesn't do much to show his interest in her. But they do spend a couple of days in a deep ravine. When the girl accidentally slips into one and the gallant hero comes to rescue her. A good cozy time, nothing romantic in the least, but it did have a sense of companionship, oneness of mind.
There are a few OMs and one other OW thrown in. Nothing noteworthy. A good show of support characters, simple hard working ranchers.
Finally, the station gets destroyed in a landslide, the houses are gone, the gold is all buried. Nothing left to live for. Its time to move on ...
The heroine tries to leave the place when the rest of the people leave. But she takes one look back at the brooding hero sitting alone on the footsteps of his deserted home. And she comes running back. He holds her tight in his arms. End of story !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the hell ?? I read through 200 pages for this ???
September 11, 2021
A bit bland for me and I did not find the chemistry particularly strong between the main characters.
September 17, 2025
I was riveted! This story had such highs and lows. And the ending is rather grim. They lose everything but each other - but so true to what living off the land is like.
Heroine is warm-hearted, competent and a bit of a dreamer. She's escaping her maiden aunt's house to help out at an Outback Station that is really a village of small shacks in a beautiful green valley. Hero is a widower and quiet - so, so quiet. But he's the big boss and everyone feels his authority and strength.
Heroine is attuned to him from the beginning and this sense heightens after he rescues her from a deep ravine. (They spend two nights there) It's a glorious place - hidden, lush, and comfortable - a micro climate that is a good metaphor for a romantic relationship that endures and sustains. But, sorry readers, this was written in the 1960's and it remains a metaphor until the last few pages . . .
Still, I believed in their HEA - despite the age gap - despite the work ahead after the landslide. Such a beautiful story of light and shadows.
Heroine is warm-hearted, competent and a bit of a dreamer. She's escaping her maiden aunt's house to help out at an Outback Station that is really a village of small shacks in a beautiful green valley. Hero is a widower and quiet - so, so quiet. But he's the big boss and everyone feels his authority and strength.
Heroine is attuned to him from the beginning and this sense heightens after he rescues her from a deep ravine. (They spend two nights there) It's a glorious place - hidden, lush, and comfortable - a micro climate that is a good metaphor for a romantic relationship that endures and sustains. But, sorry readers, this was written in the 1960's and it remains a metaphor until the last few pages . . .
Still, I believed in their HEA - despite the age gap - despite the work ahead after the landslide. Such a beautiful story of light and shadows.
June 17, 2022
Heartbreak and Love in the Outback
A sad story of a cattle and horse farm run by 3 friends: Ryan, Cal and Cousins led by the Boss, Matters. Penny answers an ad to take care of 5 youngsters on an outback farm to get away from her strict aunt. Soon she is involved with the secrets between the 3 farmers and falling in love with Masters until nature steps in to show her where her place is.
A sad story of a cattle and horse farm run by 3 friends: Ryan, Cal and Cousins led by the Boss, Matters. Penny answers an ad to take care of 5 youngsters on an outback farm to get away from her strict aunt. Soon she is involved with the secrets between the 3 farmers and falling in love with Masters until nature steps in to show her where her place is.
June 28, 2019
Excellent story of a different time and world now lost to history. Characters and settings depictions of the story draw the reader in. Totally clean but intriguing romance. The characters are well developed and the adventure of living in Australia during the 1950's - 1960's was fascinating.
February 27, 2023
A Man Called Masters
I enjoyed this story very much,such strong,tough people in the Outback,always such hard workers,a little surprised at the outcome,but all characters had a part to play.
I enjoyed this story very much,such strong,tough people in the Outback,always such hard workers,a little surprised at the outcome,but all characters had a part to play.
June 13, 2024
A story of courage and heart
The front cover of this book is not really accurate - it gave me the impression of a light hearted easy romance.
In reality this story is more gritty and complex. A very enjoyable read.
The front cover of this book is not really accurate - it gave me the impression of a light hearted easy romance.
In reality this story is more gritty and complex. A very enjoyable read.
March 13, 2023
One of her best!
February 19, 2021
Another intensely emotionally story.
Yet again you are swept away in the life and romance of the outback. If only the stories could go on and on.....
Yet again you are swept away in the life and romance of the outback. If only the stories could go on and on.....
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews