Mrs M

In 2014 Luke Slattery wrote the book, The First Dismissal, a study of the final years of  the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie in New South Wales focusing on the criticism of his term as reported in The Bigge Report.

Slattery has now written a work of historical fiction with Elizabeth Macquarie, Lachlan Macquarie's wife, as the main character. The story in the novel fluctuates between Elizabeth's life on the Scottish island of Mull and her life in Sydney as the wife of the governor. In November 1807, Elizabeth was 29 when she married Lachlan who was 46 and widowed. Jane, his first wife, had died in India in 1796.

In the novel there is a three way partnership between Elizabeth, Lachlan and the convict Francis Greenway (referred to as The Architect) who was employed by the governor to design public buildings for the new colony. Elizabeth was known to be interested in gardening and in architecture, and supported her husband in his aim of improving the look of the new settlement. In the book she and The Architect work closely together, not always with her husband's approval.

Sydney was established as a prison settlement but as many of the convicts gained their freedom there was a new dimension to the needs of the colony. As governor, Macquarie used the talents of the emancipists, including Greenway, to carry out his vision antagonising many of the former military officers and other free settlers living in the colony. Factions developed in the colony culminating with the British government sending Commissioner Bigge to write a report on Macquarie's management style and spending. Tensions also developed regarding attitudes to the treatment of aboriginal people.

This is a work of fiction set in an historical setting which I enjoyed reading. As such it is a good story that also provides an understanding of some of the underlying tensions prevalent, as well as achievements, in the early days of colonial Australia. However in the postscript the author points out some of the historical events in the lives of the characters which were changed for the writing of the novel. Hopefully some readers of this book will decide to investigate the real stories of the the three main characters who contributed so much to the formation of Sydney.

[As a side note, one of my ancestors, Simeon Lord, also receives a couple of brief mentions in the book.]

Australian Dictionary of Biography - Elizabeth Macquarie
Australian Dictionary of Biography - Lachlan Macquarie
Australian Dictionary of Biography - Francis Greenway

The Jane Austen Book Club

Recently I completed the FutureLearn course - Jane Austen: Myth, Reality and Global Celebrity. In the discussion a book that was often mentioned in the discussion list was The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler.

The plot involves a group of six people in California who decide to meet once a month to discuss one of Jane Austen's novels. The participants are a mixed group who we gradually meet and learn of their back stories. Bernadette is the oldest member of the group at 67, Jocelyn and Sylvia had met at a camp when they were 11, Allegra is Sylvia's daughter, Prudie is a 28 year old French teacher while the token male of the group is Grigg, aged about 40 who met Jocelyn at a hotel when she was attending a dog show and he was attending a science fiction convention.

Each month the meeting is held at the home of a book club member and although we learn of the opinions of individual members about about Jane Austen's writing, the plots of the books and the characters, much of this book is spent exploring the lives of the individual readers. Consequently, as the months go by, we learn of the complicated relationships of and between some of the book club members.

At the end of the book there is a brief summary of the plot of the six Jane Austen novels discussed at each meeting,  a collection of comments made by Jane Austen's family and friends about Mansfield Park and Emma, plus a list of chronological comments about Jane Austen's books made by critics and other writers.

The Quakers: a very short introduction

When researching family history recently I discovered that one line of my family became Quakers in northern England at the commencement of the Quaker movement in the seventeenth century. Consequently I looked for some books that may provide background information and also found a FutureLearn online course on the establishment of the Quaker movement in England - Radical Spirituality: the early history of the Quakers - which I have just completed.

The author of the book, The Quakers: a very short introduction is Pink Dandelion (a name he has chosen though during the online course he included Ben (his given name) in this name). As the title suggests this is a small book but it does provide a good introduction to the Quaker movement. The book is only 143 pages including index, a glossary of terms, references and further reading list. Topics include who are the Quakers, the history of Quakerism, worship, belief theology and language, ecumenism and the future of Quakerism.

George Fox was the founder of the Quaker movement in 1652 and the original stronghold for the new faith was northern England, particularly Yorkshire and Lancashire, where my ancestors lived. Living in small isolated communities many of the people in this area, including some members of my family, welcomed this new form of worship focusing on the individual's direct contact with God, with the emphasis on the 'inner voice', without the need for priests and sermons. Initially the Quakers met in the homes of fellow Quakers and later established meeting houses for worship.  Initially many of the Quakers were persecuted included being fined and or gaoled for not observing customs of the time, especially in relation to the established church. Life improved for the Quakers after the passing of the Toleration Act in 1689 allowing freedom of worship for nonconformists.

Tracing your Nonconformist Ancestors: a guide for family and local historians by Stuart A Raymond includes a chapter on the Quakers as well sections on Presbyterians and Unitarians, Congregationalists / Independents, Baptists, Methodists, Calvinistic Methodists, Inghamites, Moravians and the Salvation Army. Other denominations and sects included are Catholic Apostolic Church, Christadelpians, Christian Brethren, Churches of Christ, Mormons, Church of the Nazarene, Family of Love, Glasites, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muggletonians, Pentecostalists, Sandemanians, Seventh Day Adventists and Swedenborgians. It also includes a short history of nonconformity plus sources for nonconformity.

The chapter on the Quakers provides a brief introduction followed by suggestions of resources useful when researching family members who were Quakers.

Cold War Games

On my Family Connections blog I have written a number of posts on the Olympic Games held in Melbourne 1956. This event played an important part in my childhood as my father was a sports journalist on the Argus newspaper and also a member of the Publicity Committee for the Games.

Cold War Games by Harry Blutstein provides background information about events that threatened the staging of the Olympic Games in 1956 as well as political incursions going on behind the scenes and in public during the Melbourne Games.

The water polo game between Hungary and Russia is the most notorious event  that occurred but it was one of many political instances that occurred before and during the Games. The year 1956 was during  the Cold War between the USSR and the USA and their allies and political tensions were rife.

In the weeks before the Games commenced the USSR had invaded Hungary to crush an uprising against Russian occupation of the country. The Hungarian team decided to compete in Melbourne however Holland, Spain and Switzerland boycotted the Games because of the Soviet invasion. But there were other political tensions too. Three other teams, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq, boycotted the Games because of the Suez crisis. There were also stand-offs between the two Chinas, the two Koreas and two Germanys about who would, or would not, compete.

The author sets out to provide the background to some of these tensions, particularly between Hungary and the USSR as well as between the USSR and the USA. He describes the quest by the Russians in the 1950s to form competitive sports teams that would win more medals than any other team, especially American teams. They began to compete in the Olympic Games again at Helsinki in 1952 with some success. In 1956 they were ready to show their supremacy.

As well as the sport there were events occurring behind the scenes with members of some teams being closely monitored by their security agents. A number of competitors from communist countries defected after the Games.

The Olympic Games held in Melbourne were known as the Friendly Games. However there was another story and this book shows some of what was going on behind the scenes.

Life in a Medieval Castle

Joseph and Frances Gies originally published this book in 1974. There have been several reprints including this one in 2015. The authors provide a comprehensive and interesting account of what it was like to live in a medieval castle, particularly in the thirteenth century.

Chapters in the castle include information on the advent of building castles in England (especially from Norman times), the castle as a house, the role of the Lord and the Lady of the castle, the running of the household, an account of daily life, importance of hunting in castle life, the life of villagers, making of knights, the castle during battles, a typical year in castle life and the decline of castles in England.

The emphasis in the book is on English castles in the thirteenth century, especially Chepstow Castle, but the authors stress that castles were already an important part of life in European countries prior to the Norman invasion of England. There is a geographical guide to some European castles at the end of the book as well as a detailed bibliography. Throughout the book there are many photographs of castles and castle life but these photos are very dark and unclear compared to those that would be in a book published today. For those interested in the illustrations, clearer photos of the castles would probably be available online.

This is a detailed, useful and readable book on castle life in medieval times. The authors have also written books, Life in a Medieval City and Life in a Medieval Village.

The Shepherd's Hut

Over the years I have read a number of Tim Winton novels and have enjoyed most of the them. However the one that I did not finish was Cloudstreet, perhaps his best known work. This was largely because the main character annoyed me so much. I will go back to the book one day and hopefully finish reading the saga. However I really enjoyed the experience of reading The Shepherd's Hut and needed to keep reading until the end to find out what happened.

In Tim Winton's novels the Australian environment plays a major role - it is not just a setting for the action, it is a major component of the book. The Shepherd's Hut is set in Western Australia, in dry, desolate semi-desert scrub country with a large salt pan being a major feature.

It is in a small country town that we first meet Jaxie, a young teenage boy who is used to being bullied and abused. His mother has died and then one evening he arrives home to find his alcoholic father dead under his car. Jaxie decides he has no choice but to leave home and sets off on foot to find his cousin, the only person who he hopes understands him.

With few belongings and little food and water Jaxie travels until he finds the remains of a shelter where he stays for a time. Venturing further he discovers an old shepherd's hut in which an old man is living. Much of the story revolves around the relationship between Jaxie and Fintan McGillis, a former Catholic priest. It is about the art of survival as well as learning to understand oneself. Jaxie has been afraid that he may become like his abusive father. He needs to gradually understand who he really is. He is also wary and unable to fully trust Fintan. He wants to leave but also, over time, feels a responsibility towards the old man.

This work has rightly been described as a brutal book. It is set in a brutal, barren landscape but it is the language in which the book is written that really hits the reader. The story is told through Jaxion's eyes and the language is earthy, direct and full of swearing and Australian slang. But this is who the characters are and the raw language contributes to the telling of the story.

It was sometimes hard work but I am glad that I read this Australian novel.

Review:
The Shepherd's Hut reviewed by Michael McGirr

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir

Sunday 24th March 1940. The vicar places a sign on the door of the village hall - '"As all male voices have gone to war the village choir is to close". Fortunately for the local community, the ladies of Chilbury decide to form an all female voice choir, an exercise that provides strength and purpose not only to the choristers in trying times but also to the people who listen to them sing.

The novel chronicles the lives of the women in the choir through their writings in their journals as well as correspondence. The story is therefore unveiled primarily through the voices of five of the choir members, sisters Venetia and Kitty Winthrop, Miss Edwina Paltry, Mrs Tilling and a refugee from Czechoslovakia, Sylvie. The background to the story is the effect of the early stages of World War II on this village in Kent and the nearby town of Litchfield which houses a military base. The five month period of the storyline include the Dunkirk evacuation and the commencement of the Battle for Britain. The women, however, find strength in singing together plus a purpose other than just surviving.

This book, published in 2017, is Jennifer Ryan's first novel and I would be surprised if there is not more than one sequel to this title in the future. Those who enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society will enjoy reading this book. This book will also be popular with book clubs. There are already a number of pages on the Internet providing discussion group questions for this book.