Mrs Macquarie and the tragic accident

Headstone of Grace and Richard Veale, Elizabeth Macarthur's sister and father. St Bridget's churchyard, Bridgerule. Source: Adventures in Biography One of the problems of being a researcher of women's history is all the dead children. Over and over again the archives yield stories of families broken by illness, accident and disease - so many stories that they are in danger of seeming commonplace. But of course the death of each child was, to his or her own family, an occasion of enormous tragedy. Elizabeth Macarthur lost [...]

Offers from publishers

Right now I have written offers from six different publishers (so far). Yes, six. Yes, all of them well-known publishing houses. I know, I'm gobsmacked too. I've spent the last few weeks talking with each of them, on the phone and face-to-face - wonderful and lengthy conversations about writing, editing, history and Elizabeth Macarthur. I must say that everyone I've spoken with has been incredibly friendly and nice.  And all very keen to win me over. I've never heard so many people say so many lovely things about my writing! [...]

Maligning Mr Leach – the gaps are where the mysteries lie

Someone asked me the other day if the biography I'm working on will contain any fictional elements. Um, no. If it did it, wouldn't it be a work of historical fiction, and not a biography? And yet, I do confess, the temptation to create fiction - to fill in the gaps - is strong. Occasionally within the text of my manuscript I offer some brief conjecture.  But I'm careful to make it very clear that conjecture and guess-work (albeit educated guess-work) is all that it is.  However sometimes my conjecture [...]

Saying Goodbye to your Children

This week I waved my son off to camp - he'll be away for nine days.  Elizabeth Macarthur waved her young sons off too, to be educated in England, for years at a time.  I don't think I can imagine how she felt.  Or can I? Inga Clendinnen explored the problem at length in The History Question: Who owns the past? (Quarterly Essay, Issue 23) We cannot post ourselves back in time. People really did think differently then – or at least we must proceed on that assumption...It is true that [...]

Never just a farmer’s wife

I'm often asked what sparked my interest in Elizabeth Macarthur. Harriett Pettifore Brims (1864-1939), Harriett Brims' photographic studio and residence, Ingham, Queensland, ca. 1894-1900. Image courtesy of John Oxley Library through Picture Queensland: 146939. Many years ago I managed a government grants program and had the privilege to work with some grant applicants from outback Queensland - including a group of women farmers.  I was very green and the farmers were very kind.  They took the time to explain to me that there was no such thing - [...]

Paleography – transcribing old letters

Transcribing Elizabeth Macarthur's letters is at once illuminating and frustrating. I'm currently working on one that Elizabeth sent to Captain John Piper, in 1804.  The original is held in the Mitchell Library, Sydney.  John Macarthur was away in England at the time and Captain Piper, a good friend to both Elizabeth and John, was stationed at Norfolk Island (a secondary penal colony, some 1600kms northeast of Sydney). The letter is a crucial one because in it Elizabeth describes how she and her children fled  from their farm in Parramatta to [...]

Sidesaddle

Esther Stace cleared a record 6'6" at the Sydney Royal Show in Australia in 1915 riding sidesaddle. Photo source: Walcha Historical Society. Elizabeth Macarthur was a horsewoman.She wrote a letter describing riding through the bush on a three day trip to the Hawkesbury.  Governor Macquarie wrote about encountering her on horseback.But that's all I know.  I can't tell you if Elizabeth rode for pleasure, although her friend Betsy Marsden certainly did (Betsy's husband wrote to friends bragging of his wife's riding prowess).  I can't tell you if amongst the [...]

Camden Park House & Garden Open Days

Photo Source: https://macarthur.com.au/camden-park-house-and-garden-open-weekend Open 20 - 21 September 2014. Saturday 12noon - 4pm; Sunday 10am - 4pm Historic Camden Park House built in 1835 for John and Elizabeth Macarthur and their family is open for one weekend a year. Tour through this historic Georgian mansion designed by John Verge. Explore the colonial garden filled with spring blossoms and rare botanical plants, and enjoy devonshire tea or BBQ lunch.  Plant, gifts and produce stalls on display as well as Vintage Cars. More information available here at www.camdenparkhouse.com.au. Elizabeth Macarthur [...]

Visiting Bridgerule, Dreaming of the Past

Bridgerule Millhouse Thanks to every TV and cinema adaptation of Pride and Prejudice it isn’t hard for a modern reader to imagine the quiet corner of England that Elizabeth Macarthur left behind. Elizabeth Veale, as she was then, was born in 1766 and raised in the very English village of Bridgerule, on the border of Cornwall and Devon.   Rolling green hills, flowering hedgerows, majestic trees surrounding an ancient church, picturesque gardens beside quaint little cottages — the location ticks every English stereotype on the bonnet drama list. And [...]

Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer

Biographer Richard Holmes wrote a book about writing books - specifically, biographies. "This exhilarating book, part biography, part autobiography...shows the biographer as sleuth and huntsman, tracking his subjects through space and time." - Observer On the face of it Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer describes how Holmes retraced, on foot, a journey made through France by his subject Robert Louis Stevenson.  What Footsteps really describes, though, is how the biographer's journey both captured and failed to capture the subject. Footsteps is a book worth reading and having myself just [...]

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