What do you think?
Rate this book
Gentle Journey: Memoir of a Travelling Gal
Gentle Journey is an easy-read memoir written with playful humour. At the heart of this global adventure is Kay’s desire for independence from her over-bearing father and her enjoyment of connecting with her mother’s family in the U.S.
Kay’s journey across the world from Australia will exceed every childhood dream she and her brother Frank once imagined, and bring her to a new and unexpected home. “Each chapter,” writes one reader, “was like opening a delightful present of travel and adventure.”
Kay’s journey across the world from Australia will exceed every childhood dream she and her brother Frank once imagined, and bring her to a new and unexpected home. “Each chapter,” writes one reader, “was like opening a delightful present of travel and adventure.”
507 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 6, 2018
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 15, 2019
10 September 2019
Martin Kerr
Gentle Journey: Memoir of a Travelling Gal
By Kay Knox
krknox.wordpress.com Printed in United States, 487pp
Finding home through travel
This is a self-published memoir which has been well researched and worked over. Kay Knox’s adventures begin at childhood. Her musically talented American mother fell in love with an Australian who was in the United States to study architecture, only to be forcibly returned in to his homeland in 1934. She followed and married him, living on various small holdings around Brisbane, Queensland and supplementing a meagre income selling home grown produce. Mrs Knox gave birth to seven children including two boys. The eldest Franki had a special relationship with Kay. Their martinet father made all the decisions including their children’s education. He sent Franki into an apprenticeship at a large mine.
Franki and Kay made plans to go overseas. But Franki was killed in a railway accident. Kay with her staunch Methodist upbringing, a scholarship-earned teaching certificate and ‘bush’ teaching experience went off on her own.
Departing by ship and hoping to further her qualifications she taught in England and travelled to Europe with friends she made on the way. Holidays gave her opportunities to travel around England and Scotland. After meeting many of her mother’s relatives in Minnesota she decided that going to Canada may be the best way to upgrade her academic status.
Ever adventurous she taught in an English-speaking suburb of Montreal then took on a two-year position teaching Inuit at Churchill, Manitoba on Hudson Bay. She travelled through much of Canada with two Inuit students in a VW campervan and trailer. She also travelled in a similar fashion with other former students. Every opportunity was taken to visit points of interest; reminiscing her country and family, feeling upset by her father’s criticism and lack of encouragement; writing letters, taking photos and meeting people.
Finally she moved to British Colombia and enrolled for a bachelor degree in home economics, meeting the man of her life, John Knox, a mature age student and graduating geologist. They married but never did Kay stop travelling. She caught up with some of her Inuit students as late as 2017, proving that what Kay and other colonising government employees did on the tundra of Hudson Bay was not all misplaced. She noted her orientation training did not take into account cultural factors. Fortunately her students and their parents were patient and willing to share their expertise and food.
Throughout this writing endeavour Kay called on letters and slides she sent home and preserved by members of her family. She speaks fondly of her siblings, two of whom work in Canada. Her travels through Australia, Egypt, Europe, England, Scotland and most of North America are dotted with pithy and interesting comments derived from observation, guides’ comments, books and brochures.
The author writes for the North American market. She is overly conscious about Australian words and uses parentheses. This gets wearisome at times. Similarly with atmospheric temperatures and distances covered. Kay noted that Canada (and USA) should have moved to a fully metric system which Australia did completely and successfully from 1966. Did she consider a glossary, a list of abbreviations, and if really necessary, metric conversion tables?
This is an unusual story by a writer who shows time and time again her ability to plan achievable goals, make friends and report with humour and modesty. Her reflections sit well with this reviewer who left his country to avoid similar family pressures (mainly imagined) to conform. The reviewer met Kay and John at Edwina Toohey’s (youngest and ‘the writer of the family’) farm in Far North Queensland four years ago. With a glint in her eye Kay mentioned she wrote travel stories for a local newspaper. She was on another gentle journey.
Martin Kerr’s New Guinea Patrol was first published in 1973. His cult memoir, short stories and seven novels are available on Kindle.
www.maskimedia.com.au
Martin Kerr
Gentle Journey: Memoir of a Travelling Gal
By Kay Knox
krknox.wordpress.com Printed in United States, 487pp
Finding home through travel
This is a self-published memoir which has been well researched and worked over. Kay Knox’s adventures begin at childhood. Her musically talented American mother fell in love with an Australian who was in the United States to study architecture, only to be forcibly returned in to his homeland in 1934. She followed and married him, living on various small holdings around Brisbane, Queensland and supplementing a meagre income selling home grown produce. Mrs Knox gave birth to seven children including two boys. The eldest Franki had a special relationship with Kay. Their martinet father made all the decisions including their children’s education. He sent Franki into an apprenticeship at a large mine.
Franki and Kay made plans to go overseas. But Franki was killed in a railway accident. Kay with her staunch Methodist upbringing, a scholarship-earned teaching certificate and ‘bush’ teaching experience went off on her own.
Departing by ship and hoping to further her qualifications she taught in England and travelled to Europe with friends she made on the way. Holidays gave her opportunities to travel around England and Scotland. After meeting many of her mother’s relatives in Minnesota she decided that going to Canada may be the best way to upgrade her academic status.
Ever adventurous she taught in an English-speaking suburb of Montreal then took on a two-year position teaching Inuit at Churchill, Manitoba on Hudson Bay. She travelled through much of Canada with two Inuit students in a VW campervan and trailer. She also travelled in a similar fashion with other former students. Every opportunity was taken to visit points of interest; reminiscing her country and family, feeling upset by her father’s criticism and lack of encouragement; writing letters, taking photos and meeting people.
Finally she moved to British Colombia and enrolled for a bachelor degree in home economics, meeting the man of her life, John Knox, a mature age student and graduating geologist. They married but never did Kay stop travelling. She caught up with some of her Inuit students as late as 2017, proving that what Kay and other colonising government employees did on the tundra of Hudson Bay was not all misplaced. She noted her orientation training did not take into account cultural factors. Fortunately her students and their parents were patient and willing to share their expertise and food.
Throughout this writing endeavour Kay called on letters and slides she sent home and preserved by members of her family. She speaks fondly of her siblings, two of whom work in Canada. Her travels through Australia, Egypt, Europe, England, Scotland and most of North America are dotted with pithy and interesting comments derived from observation, guides’ comments, books and brochures.
The author writes for the North American market. She is overly conscious about Australian words and uses parentheses. This gets wearisome at times. Similarly with atmospheric temperatures and distances covered. Kay noted that Canada (and USA) should have moved to a fully metric system which Australia did completely and successfully from 1966. Did she consider a glossary, a list of abbreviations, and if really necessary, metric conversion tables?
This is an unusual story by a writer who shows time and time again her ability to plan achievable goals, make friends and report with humour and modesty. Her reflections sit well with this reviewer who left his country to avoid similar family pressures (mainly imagined) to conform. The reviewer met Kay and John at Edwina Toohey’s (youngest and ‘the writer of the family’) farm in Far North Queensland four years ago. With a glint in her eye Kay mentioned she wrote travel stories for a local newspaper. She was on another gentle journey.
Martin Kerr’s New Guinea Patrol was first published in 1973. His cult memoir, short stories and seven novels are available on Kindle.
www.maskimedia.com.au
Displaying 1 of 1 review