FAR ACROSS THE SEA is a family saga that begins in Scotland in 1913, progresses through two world wars and leads to a life in Ipswich, Australia for a young man who takes up the offer of assisted passage to Australia as part  of the Australian government’s  ‘Populate or Perish’ campaign after the second world war.

Life in the mining villages of Scotland was rather bleak.  One of the characters in the book joins the army in WWI to get away from the mines, only to find himself digging underground in France.  Years after WWII had finished, food and clothing were still being rationed in Scotland, few people could afford to buy their own home and unemployment was high.  When Australia put out the call for young men and families to populate its shores, with the lure of high employment and sunshine instead of rain and snow, many people took up the call.

The book is based on fact and provides a snapshot of the lives of people in Scotland in the early 1900s and the new hope that Australia offered in the 1950s.