debsy

Anyone read this book - if so what did you think of it?

Pollyana

Very very good read. The size of it may be daunting, but its a fascinating book and well written so it keeps your interest. Lots of detail, and brings the whole period to life. Perfect for a long flight to somewhere......

debsy

Precisely Poll I have just purchased a copy to read on the plane

jayr

Read "'True History of the Kelly Gang" by Peter Carey - great stuff

Pollyana

I read it travelling over a couple of years ago - and was still reading it when I got back! Well worth it though, really brought things to life.

OzTennis

Anya had a great thread about good reads and I mentioned in it that I picked up The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes at a charity shop, I'm just reading it now and it is excellent as Poll said. On Saturday I picked up 2 Peter Carey books at another charity shop - Jack Maggs and Exotic Tales. They're on my 'to read' pile and I'm looking forward to reading them. Carey is a native of Bacchus Marsh (near Melbourne) in Victoria I noticed.

On the convict/transportation theme it would be hard to beat Out of Ireland by Christopher Koch: http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/author...ofireland.html

For the term of his natural life by Marcus Clarke; Morgan's Run by Colleen McCullough are also good reads.

OzTennis

seang

Another one I would recommend(its a LOT of reading)is "the great southern land" by Frank Welsh.Is is a very comprehensive history .It is meant to be the first history of Australia written by a non Australian.

OzTennis

I'll look for that one. As I said in the other thread Geoffrey Blainey also has some superb history books - The tyranny of distance, A land half won, The rush that never ended etc.

And speaking of Great Southern Land I can also thoroughly recommend the song by Icehouse of the same title:

Standing at the limit of an endless ocean
stranded like a runaway, lost at sea
city on a rainy day down in the harbour
watching as the grey clouds shadow the bay
looking everywhere 'cause I had to find you
this is not the way that i remember it here
anyone will tell you its a prisoner island
hidden in the summer for a million years

Great Southern Land, burned you black

so you look into the land and it will tell you a story
story 'bout a journey ended long ago
if you listen to the motion of the wind in the mountains
maybe you can hear them talking like I do
". . they're gonna betray, they're gonna forget you
are you gonna let them take you over this way . ."

Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
you walk alone like a primitive man
and they make it work with sticks and bones
see their hungry eyes, its a hungry home
I hear the sound of the stranger's voices
I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes
Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
they burned you black, black against the ground

Great Southern Land, in the sleeping sun
you walk alone with the ghost of time
they burned you black, black against the ground
and they make it work with rocks and sand
I hear the sound of the stanger's voices
I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes
Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
you walk alone, like a primitive man
you walk alone with the ghost of time
and they burned you black
yeah, they burned you black
Great Southern Land

OzTennis

Monkey

In article <[email protected]> ,
member11187@british_expats.com (debsy) wrote:

    >
    > Anyone read this book - if so what did you think of it?
    >
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com
    >

A bit tricky to get into but worth persevering with.

I can also thoroughly recommend Australia by Phillip Knightly -


http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...896646/sr=1-2/
ref=sr_1_10_2/202-8457045-3097418


Cheers,


--
Paul
http://www.labrose.com