Recent Acquisitions

[monissaw.livejournal.com]

Birthday & trip acquisitions.



From my sister :) This is a lovely book, a big hardcover, published by the National Library, with lots of coloured pictures but the feature is a series of panoramas, 2-4 pages wide, reproducing old artworks or photographs.



(That one is Hobart, 1825.) The accompanying pages include images and documents that highlight interesting people, events, attitudes related to that locale. It's a coffee table, because you can just open it up and read a short article for entertain, but with enough depth in each chapter that you get a feel for that time & place. Also, when they say "Australia" they mean the whole country. All the capital cities get a panorama (although Darwin is 4 pages of b&w photos located on a map) and there are also some regional cities & rural panoramas as well (inc. Launceston). It's a fascinating book.



The Sorell book came from an odd little bookshop in Huonville. It's one I should read but probably won't get around to. The Brady/Kelly book is from littlerdog and is interesting firstly because, well, some people believe that online shopping removes the fun of collecting because everything is available? This book is one of those that isn't always available, and even when it is, it's not cheap. So, frustratingly, I have not been able to get a copy, despite the need for it on my shelf of bushranger books. What makes the book itself interesting is illustrated by the back cover blurb:

The young man stood on the scaffold. A Roman Catholic priest, bible in hand, stood to one side. Prayers were read. The signal was given, the drop fell.

So ended a bushranging career that had spanned the best part of two years. This man had left his mark, becoming a legend in his own time; a notorious bushranger who bailed up towns, with huge bounties placed on his head. Renowned for his support of the underdog, he had won a ground swell of supporters. Women who fell into his hands as captives had spoken of his chivalrous conduct, but if he had ever experienced the intimate love of a woman in his life, it is unknown. A traitor had been executed two days before he fought his last stand, where bullet wounds to the leg led to his final capture, trial, and sentence to hang.

Two different stories (effectively the first & last of the "legendary" bushrangers) told in parallel, that does actually give a fresh perspective to some overtold, tired tales. We likes fresh perspectives, we does.

Comments

[littlerdog.livejournal.com]

:)