Cirrus@Austlit

'This book contains two complementary stories written by two generations of the one family. It spans three centuries - from the 1860s to the present day, 2016. The swagman, Sully, and Russ Gibson, parson, were both born in the nineteenth century, though several decades apart. New South Wales was then a colonial state of Great Britain. The tale of the swagman was penned in the 1970s by my father. A child of my parents’ older age, I was not born when the events of the swagman’s tale unfolded. Nor was I familiar with south and western New South Wales, where many of the incidents took place. The second half of this book is partly a narrative of my journey to those places. It also incorporates my parents’ oral memories recorded on tape in the early 1980s. ' (Publication summary)

'‘Enjoy a rewarding trip to India with Jen Gibson. In poems exotic yet familiar, women sweep, peaks rise, spider webs quiver with a footfall, birds call and children chant. But in evoking the full sweep of her Indian experience, we hear of greedy cities, lethal childbirth and child brides. Jen Gibson’s eye is keen. Her voice is clear. 'The poems are beautifully rendered to offer a reading of India that draws us in. Well worth the journey.’ – Jan Colvill

‘Jen Gibson lived and travelled in various parts of India for four years in the 1990s. Her experiences there affect her life and work profoundly to this day. In Made in India: travels in poetry, Jen Gibson casts her wondering, humorous, compassionate gaze on all she meets and sees. These poems have the immediacy of vivid journal entries – some are snapshots, others reflective as well. All convey the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of India. Read these poems and Jen will take you there.’ – Robyn Mathison

‘These poems cover all that is extraordinary about India. From life’s minutiae to the grand vistas of the Himalayas, Jen’s words fill me with a longing to return. Sensuous and deeply personal, juxtaposed images breathe life into a magical subcontinent experience.’ – Chris Gallagher, Tasmanian Writers Centre' (Publication summary)

'Tom Brady, one of the most respected senior men of the Lake Eyre region, passed away at Oodnadatta on the 10 July, 1989. Tom's life of about seventy-six years spanned an important era in his country's history. According to community records he was born near Hermannsberg in the Northern Territory around 1913. In an active and vigorous life, Tom saw at first hand all the key features that now make up the Aboriginal history of the western region of Lake Eyre: the Afghan camel strings in which he took part, the old 'Ghan' railway he rode (which in one circumstance was instrumental in getting him signed on for World War Two), traditional spear fights, magic, ceremonies and healing, floods, droughts, epidemics of measles and influenza, stock work on the cattle stations Mount Doreen, Macumba and Mount Dare, and finally retirement to Hamilton Station.'  (Introduction)