This is a collection of 38 letters written by the mother of Banjo Paterson, Australia's premier bush balladist between 1873 and 1888. The letters describes the life led by her family on Illalong station in the central west of New South Wales. Contrary to popular belief, they reveal that far from being brought up in wealthy circumstances, the future poet would never have become the legendary figure he was but for the heroic self-sacrifice of his mother, Rose Isabella Paterson.
Written only to enlighten her younger sister, an ex-nurse now mistress of a Queensland station, the fidelity and truth of the letters is striking. Their running commentary on the doings of the family and their neighbours reads like a novel. Furthermore, Rose's detailed background constitutes a portrait of Australian pastoral life in general, giving the letters the air of an Antipodean colonial novel in Jane Austen's vein.
Rose Paterson's intellectual and emotional energy equals her eye for significant detail, her good humour, and her command of language. They give these letters a liveliness that holds the reader from start to finish.
