Colonial Ladies compiled and edited by Maggie Weidenhofer (Secondhand Book)

SECONDHAND BOOK

The Colonial Ladies faced an uncertain and often lonely life in a scarcely known land, far from ‘the seat of happiness and delight’, England. This harsh young country demanded strength and independence: governors’ wives played a central part in the official establishment of the colonies; the wives of pioneering squatters brought grace and beauty to homesteads while enduring isolation and hardship; artists and commentators recorded their new and strange land from the perspective of women more accustomed to drawing-rooms than droughts; and humble workers provided a backbone of support in both town and country. Most had the advantage of education and penned their thoughts in diaries and letters, while some of convict origin struggled with the language.

Throughout the varied experiences presented in this selection a thread of longing for home and ‘dear familiar faces’ is entwined with the unspoken courage and determination required to overcome the difficulties faced by the new settler. There is delight, too, in new-found friends, in achievement despite adversity, in growing families and fortunes, and in the wonders of the new land.

The extracts in Colonial Ladies are fleshly told anecdotes about people, places and events. Lively, amusing, poignant or grim, they are a fascinating glimpse of distant lives, supported by biographical introductions by Maggie Weidenhofer.

Specifications:

Condition: Good – slightly faded spine but otherwise excellent.

Publisher: Currey O’Neil

Year: 1985

Format: Hardback, with dust jacket

Pages: 120pp

ISBN: 0859022587

$22.00

1 in stock