Published in 1910, A Little Bush Maid is the first in a series of fifteen books by Australian author Mary Grant Bruce called the Billabong series. Billabong is a large cattle property in Northern Victoria. The book chronicles the antics of twelve-year-old Norah Linton who lives on Billabong with her widowed father, brother, and her pony Bobs.
Thank you for including this!! I did mean to get back to you, but life got very hectic for me (look out for an e-mail soon). I am a huge fan of Mary Grant Bruce - though this book (the first in the series) is not a favorite (my favorite part of the series starts with "From Billabong to London"). I own all the series as actual books and still re-read them.
This is a rather romantacised view of Australia - and one of an extremely priveleged class - the Victorian Squatter (also known as the "Squattocracy"). Squatters got their name from how they acquired their land - by "squatting" on it (the same way current squatters move into a vacant building). It does give some idea of the trials an tribulations of life on the land in Australia - the constant threat of bushfires, etc., but none of that seems to impinge on the "fun" Norah and her family have.
Mary Grant Bruce is a very good writer, who draws you into her characters and her world. It's also an eye opener for attitudes of the day towards non-whites (and this applies in the later books when they are in South Africa as well) and there are parts and passages that are definitely not "acceptable" today - but were normal at the time.
If you're a fan of the "Little House" books, then you will love this series. If you're not - you will also enjoy them as they are far grittier than Laura WIlder's offerings.
(3 votes)
Thank you for including this!! I did mean to get back to you, but life got very hectic for me (look out for an e-mail soon). I am a huge fan of Mary Grant Bruce - though this book (the first in the series) is not a favorite (my favorite part of the series starts with "From Billabong to London"). I own all the series as actual books and still re-read them.
This is a rather romantacised view of Australia - and one of an extremely priveleged class - the Victorian Squatter (also known as the "Squattocracy"). Squatters got their name from how they acquired their land - by "squatting" on it (the same way current squatters move into a vacant building). It does give some idea of the trials an tribulations of life on the land in Australia - the constant threat of bushfires, etc., but none of that seems to impinge on the "fun" Norah and her family have.
Mary Grant Bruce is a very good writer, who draws you into her characters and her world. It's also an eye opener for attitudes of the day towards non-whites (and this applies in the later books when they are in South Africa as well) and there are parts and passages that are definitely not "acceptable" today - but were normal at the time.
If you're a fan of the "Little House" books, then you will love this series. If you're not - you will also enjoy them as they are far grittier than Laura WIlder's offerings.