Description
This book, We of the Never-Never, is great because into it a woman has written the story of her heart, its greatness is in its sincerity.
‘The Little Missus’, newly married, accompanies her husband, ‘The Maluka’, to his life work, the management of a great cattle station of one and a quarter million acres, ‘The Elsey’, which is three hundred miles distant from the nearest township.
The presence of a white woman in such surroundings is unusual, and the author is at first unwelcome amongst the stockmen, but she by her gallant spirit wings her way to their respect, soon to be affectionately termed ‘The Little Missus’.
Here is a real story of the real Australia, lonely but lovely; it is told in faultless style and with real genius, her characters grow under her pen into personalities and have become familiar types to all Australians.
The life of the cattle station is depicted unerringly and picturesquely, the humour is never far away, and at times is notable, as, for instance, the Christmas Dinner with Cheon, a Chinese cook as master of ceremonies and a fount of humour; the blacks, too, furnish much fun.
But death comes to ‘The Elsey’-‘The Maluka’ enters the Great Shadow, his stockmen mourn in dumb manly grief for ‘the best Boss that ever a man had’, a keening wail rises from the blacks’ camp, but ‘the brave ‘Little Missus’ has written her heart and her memories into We of the Never-Never, and so has raised to her ‘Maluka’ a great and lasting memorial and a real contribution to the great books of English literature.
Hardcover, 256 pages. In good pre-loved condition with the exception of a handwritten inscription on the front page. Ex-library