NOSTALGIC BILLABONGS

Press, 16 February 1980, Page 17

NOSTALGIC BILLABONGS

Seven Little Billabongs: The World of Ethel Turner and Mary Grant Bruce. By Brenda Niall, Melbourne University Press, 1979. 191 pp.. Notes, bibliography and index. $17.60. (Reviewed by Margaret Quigley) Brenda Niall is a senior lecturer in English at Monash University and this study of two Australian writers reads at times like a thesis for her doctorate; an impression unfortunately reinforced by the small close type and the paucity of illustrations, (an economy which seems oddly at variance with the good quality paper and binding). These small cavils made, one can admit freely to the book’s value, both as entertainment and as a serious study of two important children’s writers. Ethel Turner and Mary Grant Bruce were the first writers to use Australian settings for popular children’s books and between them during a period of 50 years they published more than 70 novels (as well as innumerable short stories in periodicals). ’ “From 1894 when Ethel Turner’s ‘Seven Little Australians’ was published, until 1942, when the last Billabong book came out, there was no year without a new Turner or Bruce novel as a prize-day award or

Christmas present for Australian children.” Brenda Niall begins with a brief account of the lives of the two women (Part One The Writers) then proceeds to an analysis of their work (Part Two - The World of the Novels). She shows how while relying heavily on the traditions of Victorian children’s literature they were yet able to rise above its conventions and create real characters in a setting which gave Australian children a sense of their own society and country. In each chapter of Part Two she compares and contrasts the work of the two writers in their attitude to different aspects of life in Australia, Sydney or the bush, the family, race relations or “Home.” The writing is always clear and. concise and she gives a thorough and workmanlike summary of their achievements. For those readers who received a Turner or Bruce novel for a Sunday School prize in their young days this book will provide a nostalgic trip back to the world of Seven Little Australians or Billabong, and through the use of quotations from the writers’ diaries an'insight into their method of working. (“Killed Judy to slow music”). For those who never knew the books it gives a glimpse of a charming, vanished world.