Upcoming event - October 8
Book Launch of The Philosopher's Daughters by Alison Booth
Book Launch of The Philosopher’s Daughter by Alison Booth – a conversation with Professor Frank Bongiorno - Moderated by Dr Andrew Leigh.
​
Professor Frank Bongiorno is Head of the ANU School of History. He is the author of the award-winning book The Sex Lives of Australians: A History and The Eighties: The Decade That Transformed Australia. He has reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement, Australian Book Review, the Monthly, Fairfax and The Australian. He is a regular contributor to Inside Story and The Conversation.
​
Dr Andrew Leigh MP is the Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury, Shadow Assistant Minister for Charities and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT. He is a former economics professor at the ANU, and author of Battlers and Billionaires, The Luck of Politics, Randomistas with the latest (out September 2020), Reconnected: A Community Builder's Handbook.
THE PHILOSOPHER'S DAUGHTERS
Publication date 2 April, 2020
‘A lyrical tale of wild, frontier Australia. Evocative, insightful, thought-provoking.
Karen Viggers, author
​
‘Booth is superb at the small detail that creates a life, and the large one that gives it meaning.’
Marion Halligan, author
‘Delicately handled historical drama with a theme of finding self, both in relationships and art, backed by issues on race relations in Australia and women’s rights.’
Tom Flood, author and editor
​
​
Read my blog article about the background to writing The Philosopher's Daughters.
From nineteenth century London to remote outback Australia, two sisters – pulled apart by love – are brought together by tragedy.
​
When Harriet Cameron follows her beloved sister, Sarah, to the harsh Australian outback – as dangerous as it is beautiful, as mysterious as it is wild – she is alienated by the casual violence and great injustices of outback life.
​
Harriet’s recovery from this alienation begins with her growing friendship with an Aboriginal stockman and her increasing love for the landscape.
​
But this fragile happiness is soon threatened by murders at a nearby cattle station and by a menacing station hand who is seeking revenge...