Robert Holden (2) (1948–)

The retelling of the life of William Chamberlain. A young boy born in the early days of the colonial settlement in Sydney Australia is kidnapped and taken to England in a whaling ship. Along the way the whaling ship is attacked by pirates and the captain is murdered. William is rescued from the pirates when the British navy attacked the pirates. William is interviewed by the Navy Board in Portsmouth and permitted to travel back to Sydney aboard a convict transportation ship.
There are many incidents and a very informative part of the book tells of William's life at sea when he becomes a whaler.
Whaling was a huge industry in the nineteenth century. The blubber of the whale was rendered to oil to burn for lighting throughout the industrialised world.
William Chamberlain became a sea captain and settled near Hobart in Tasmania.… (más)

Like many...maybe most...people of my generation, I have long been captivated by the work of May Gibbs. For several generations of Australians.....we can't look at a banksia tree without an involuntary shudder ...with the recollection of the evil Banksia man. Well this book draws the connection between the evil Banksia Man and an attempted child molestation of May when she was very young. (Apparently she had the presence of mind and the strength to threaten the attacker with a pen knife). Wow!
I've visited her home at Nutcote and we even had a kid's birthday party there which was a lot of fun. It's a lovely spot right on Sydney Harbour with views of the Harbour Bridge.
This book contributes a lot more information about May Gibbs than I had before....especially about her early years in Perth. But it all seems rather laboured and a lot of the illustrations would have benefited from captions. Some have them but in many cases, there seems to be a random illustration that has no connection with the text. A pity.
I was rather struck with the parallels between May Gibbs and Margaret Preston....both of whom were clearly strong women artists who married in their 40's and never had children. Both travelled overseas and studied overseas. Both had long term female companions. Were they gay? Or were they just friends? Who knows really and I guess it doesn't matter anyway. Both were great artists and commercial successes. Did they know each other? Both lived in Sydney and were active in the 1920's...both were interested in botanical painting and Australian plants and flowers.
One of the problems with this biography of May Gibbs is the maddening lack of real documentation about much of her life. Her time in London is described mainly in terms of speculation about what she most likely did. And, I guess that is a bit unfortunate.
I was fascinated to read that her brother (Ivan's) family referred to her as "the genius". Clearly she was much more than a hack artist. She was a clever cartoonist, ...apparently a good singer and actor and had a brilliant imagination.
This book draws out the parallels with Beatrix Potter ...and there certainly are a lot of similarities.
I found myself a little sad that these talented women had to go through so much difficulty ...in being accepted etc ....just because they were women. Basically, they all put romance or marriage to one side to pursue their artistic career. And we are the beneficiaries.
There are a lot of nice May Gibbs illustrations and a few by her father Herbert as well. The reproduction is good but captioning (as I mentioned, could be improved. I give the book four stars.… (más)