Item: A signed copy of A Waltz for Matilda
Details:
Book Information: Set against a backdrop of bushfire, flood, war and jubilation, this is the story of one girl’s journey towards independence. It is also the story of others who had no vote and very little but their dreams.
In 1894, twelve-year-old Matilda flees the city slums to find her unknown father and his farm. But drought grips the land and the shearers are on strike. Her father has become a swagman and he’s wanted by the troopers. In front of his terrified daughter he makes a stand against them, defiant to the last. ‘You’ll never catch me alive, said he…’
According to Jackie French’ Our nation was born from ideals and passions and the effects of a twenty year drought, wrought as much by the women of the sufferage and temperance movements as it was by constitutional lawyers. Without these women- and without the worst drought in Australia’s history- we might still be a collection of states. The land itself shaped our nationhood. ‘
Drawing on the well-known poem by A.B. Paterson and from events rooted in actual history, this is the untold story behind Australia’s early years as an emerging nation.
Brief Bio: Jackie French is a full-time writer and wombat negotiator who lives near Araluen, NSW. Her previous books, including Hitler’s Daughter and To the Moon and Back, have seen French awarded the CBC Younger Readers award and the Eve Pownall Award among more than 50 other awards in Australia and overseas. In October 2010 she was awarded a NSW Premiers History Award for her novel The Night They Stormed Eureka.