You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
With vivid and passionate descriptions of her beloved outback, Mary Durack brings alive the spirit of our country and those who have shaped it. Pilgrimage is an unforgettable journey through the vibrant landscape and life of Mary Durack, from her early writings in the 1930s through to the mid-1980s. Though best known for two family histories that have become literary classics, Kings in Grass Castles and Sons in the Saddle, Mary Durack's great talent extended to fiction, short stories, drama and verse. This long-awaited collection of her favourite works, including material never before published, provides a rare glimpse into Mary's extraordinary experiences, from her Kimberley days on the fam...
'... far better than any novel; an incomparable record of a greart family and of a series of great actions.' The Bulletin When Patrick Durack left Western Ireland for Australia in 1853, he was to found a pioneering dynasty and build a cattle empire across the great stretches of Australia. With a profound sense of family history, his grand-daughter, Mary Durack, reconstructed the Durack saga - a story of intrepid men and ground-breaking adventure. This sweeping tale of Australia and Australians remains a classic nearly fifty years on.
Dame Mary Durack Miller was born into a pastoral legacy that made her name famous even before she became one of Australia's most popular literary doyennes of the 20th century. Best known for her history of the Durack family, Kings in Grass Castles, Dame Mary was married to aviation pioneer Horrie Miller and was a sibling to the artist Elizabeth Durack. Among the multifarious threads woven into her life, she became a friend and confident to many celebrated writers, actors, and artists. Drawing on a great accumulation of first-hand sources, principally her mother's diaries and correspondence, Patsy Millett's book is about a well-known family who saw their prospects as blighted. Written from the unique perspective of someone born into the wash-up of the Durack dynasty, Patsy says her account 'will be controversial, as the reality behind the generally accepted facts has never been told.' Millet's story is unflinching. Her sharp, insightful prose and acerbic wit create an intimate portrait of an extraordinary writer whose family life was filled with triumph and tragedy.
None
Through war, love affairs, children and old age, the Duracks' creative lives were always shaped by the enduring power of the Kimberley region. With unprecedented access to hundreds of private family letters, unpublished memoirs, diaries and papers, Brenda Niall gets to the heart of a uniquely Australian story.
The Durack family emigrated from Ireland to Australia in 1849 and 1853, settling in New South Wales, Queensland and elsewhere in Australia. Some related families are Tully, Costello, Bennett and Redgrave.
Patsy Durack was born a poor boy in Ireland, but migrated to Australia in the mid-nineteenth century to build up a pastoral empire in the outback. 'My life,' Patsy Durack told his children, 'began like a fairy tale with a boy who made a wish. I wished that I might some day ride a fine horse of my very own.' To Ride a Fine Horse is based on an Australian classic - Mary Durack's Kings in Grass Castles - adapted for young readers. It tells the story of Mary's grandfather, Patsy, a poor Irish boy who came to Australia at seventeen, made his fortune on the goldfields, and then founded a pastoral empire in the remote outback. Patsy's ambition had always been to 'ride a fine horse' but he would far exceed this dream, becoming one of the nation's top horse breeders, with his choice of the finest thoroughbred mounts in the land. This account of Patsy Durack's life is based on his letters, notebooks and documents, discovered by his granddaughter Mary in an old tin trunk more than fifty years after his death. The illustrations that appear throughout the text are the work of Mary's sister, Elizabeth, and are reproduced from the original 1963 edition.
In the 80's old Stanley Rolt had pioneered the country with cattle and made a fortune. To the outside world he had become a knighted tycoon, running a vast empire that stretched across the territories... [from back cover].