Their Shining Eldorado

by Elspeth Huxley

"Roughly three out of four Australians live in cities, work in shops and offices and factories, and have scarcely ever seen a sheep. I have said too little about the daily lives of these three city dwellers and too much about the fourth concerned with livestock and tillage. But then I have not tried to give a balanced picture -- merely some personal observations about some of the people, places and things that interested me most and came my way."

Given Elspeth Huxley's childhood in Kenya and her lifelong affair with Africa, the appeal of Australia and particularly the outback is natural. THEIR SHINING ELDORADO is a fascinating look at Australia through the eyes of an exceptional talent.

Genres: Travel, Australia

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Elspeth Joscelin Huxley was an English writer, journalist, broadcaster, magistrate, environmentalist, farmer, and government adviser. She wrote over 40 books, including her best-known lyrical books, The Flame Trees of Thika and The Mottled Lizard, based on her youth in a coffee farm in British Kenya. Her husband, Gervas Huxley, was a grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley and a cousin of Aldous Huxley.

Reviews

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though obviously dated today (2012), this is an interesting book about Australia 50 odd years ago, a time when the country was just starting to find its national identity and in a sense, waking up to its position in the world. Huxley spent a goodly period of time researching this book first-hand, and met with the locals, both workers, aborigines and movers and shakers, as she went from east to west and south to north. She has a particular interest in flora and fauna wherever she goes and her comments on Australia's treatment of much of its wildlife and indigenous plants are inclined to be harsh but very much to the point. Indeed, without making it the central theme of the book, she returns a number of times to the notion that the Australian population, clinging as it did then (and does now more than ever) to the coastal fringe, has not really come to terms with this harsh landscape, and has spent much of its endeavours over the decades in trying to subdue it.