Backbencher

The author is Jill Ker Conway and the place is called Coorain which is sheep ranch 500 miles west of Sydney Australia on the Grasslands. Her main intent is to tell of her experiences through life which is also from Coorain and New South Wales and Sydney. She goes through some tough times and along the way points out some good history of Australia in the late 20s to the 60s, she really spans a time line here. She tells of their family stories while they were sheep ranchers in the outback. Also she really delivers the year by year changes of the times during World War 2. Her story is filled with testimony to all the hard ships in that time and her schooling along the way until she leaves to go to the states. She really tells the story so well that at times you can really feel the drab, dusty, dry conditions of the outback.

She also points out some historical points of the Aborigines and geographical points of the country it self. She describes every detail beautifully. Also in a historical aspect I feel this is a good book because it really gives you the inside prospective of how it was as a new settler in Australia at the time and the tough conditions one would have faced. I feel it describes the real evolution of Australia to what it is now through the eyes of a sheep rancher on the Grasslands. The only down fall is that some of the chapters are a bit drawn out to finally reach her point. I feel it is a good perspective of the era and the conditions and feelings of the ranching community at that time. I also feel that she does a good job conveying the feelings of Professional Women of the time, as to how society treated and viewed them along with the changes over time. I would recommend this book, it certainly has depth and was well thought out.