'But there was no canopy of flowers in mid-winter, of course.
Even the tough, dark-green, pointed leaves appeared to be
unhappy, turning brown on their edges, perhaps drought-stricken.
'I closed my eyes, hugged my knees, and the little tree was
in flower again—clouds of apricot-pink blossom, the colour of sunrise,
and buzzing with thousands of wild honey-bees. I was never afraid
of the bees. They ignored me, and the dogs.
'The Humming Tree, Memories of an Eccentric Childhood is a captivating collection of stories about childhood. It is a companion volume to Bron Nicholl’s earlier An Imaginary Mother. Now the focus is on the father of the family, and his disturbing transition from an easy-going, jovial man, into somebody inflexible, harsh and oppressive.
'The time is the decade following World-War II; the place is the flat, dry country of Northern Victoria, where John Nicholls built up a small but flourishing subsistence farm, and then abandoned it, forcing his family into another place, another life.
'Writing with both a child’s viewpoint and an adult’s insight, Bron has created a series of pictures filled with finely-drawn detail, subtle colours, and life’s unavoidable deep shadows.
'The Humming Tree is a biography of the rural poor. There is not a murmur of rancour. It is ‘a fortunate life’.' (Publication summary)
