Two hundred years of Australian history brought to life in a sweeping saga of action and adventure!! This is the essence of 'Tales of a Dim Eden'. The book provides a very colourful story with characters from all walks of life who reflect the conditions and mores of their times. Rich in both characters and events, with settings ranging from goldfields to vineyards, cities to pastures, 'Tales of a Dim Eden' presents an accurate and vivid history of Australia's first two hundred years.
'Tales of a Dim Eden' commences with four separate 19th-century 'Tales' which eventually combine to provide the theme for the 20th-century story, characters from each section coming together in Melbourne at the time of Federation. From New South Wales comes Emily, directly descended from a passenger in the First Fleet; from Queensland comes Victoria, a young widow of Aboriginal heritage; Jem is from the West, a youthful itinerant from a deeply troubled background; and from South Australia come David and Louisa, a brother and sister descended from the early settlers in Tasmania. These five characters form the nucleus of the 20th-century story, though one of them is destined to die tragically and violently. A series of marriages and births eventually links the other four characters, and it is their joint descendants, Felicity and Garth, who take the story through to the Australian Bicentenary in 1988.
The story is rich in both characters and events, encompassing truth and fiction, romance and tragedy, drama and pathos, triumph and despair, with settings ranging from goldfields to vineyards, cities to pastures, to present an accurate and vivid history of Australia's first two hundred years. It is a very colourful story with characters from all walks of life who reflect the conditions and mores of their times
While there have been many books written about Australia, ranging from scholarly histories to dramatisations of the more colourful periods, there has been little attempt to marry the two. 'Tales of a Dim Eden' is an attempt to remedy this and to create a history of the period in novel form, and with a lively story-line. The book includes only such historical detail as is necessary for the sake of authenticity, and I have tried to let my characters, all of whom are fictional, tell the developing story themselves. Nevertheless, the historical, geographical and sociological details are accurate and all the characters and events are representative of the times and locales.
Compelling historical fiction that traces the life of a young English immigrant woman who travels to America at the turn of the century to start a new life for herself. Encountering danger, romance, heartache and tragedy, she strives to fit into a
