Life in the Australian Backblocks

by Edward S. Sorenson

Currey O'Neil, 1984, b/w illustrations throughout, hardcover, dustjacket ISBN 0859023850

Like New, previous owners inscription inside front cover, minimal shelf-wear to dustjacket

'A collection of marvelous vignettes depicting bush life.  It takes a nostalgic look back to the mateship and friendliness of the bushman, that 'man of surging robustness, rugged as his native hills, rough of speech and manner, despising the silly conversationalities of modern society', but 'one of Nature's gentlemen' nonetheless.

Sorenson has coloured his stories with a mass of details which make a whole way of life come alive.  It is a world peopled by a wonderful host of characters - bagmen and swagmen, shearers and sundowners, prospectors and stockmen.  It is a world of humourous and tall stories, enhanced by its peculiarly Australian flavour: 'I have heard of the man, too, who could cut the eye out of a flying mosquito without touching his eyelash, but I never met him' and 'Once on Mount Browne I met the Czar of Russia selling needlewood pipes.'

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