Cirrus@Austlit

'In his first week of research in Sydney's Mitchell Library, where he sat, unearthing the life of Louisa Lawson, mother of Henry, for his first radio play in 1956, Brian Hungerford lost concentration when he noticed a boxed paragraph about an illiterate, teenage-convict girl who had demolished the ruling 'exclusives', a group of magistrates led by the Reverend Samuel Marsden. There was no further information. The play on Louisa Lawson was a great success and after two months, of daily research, Brian eventually discovered his convict's name: Ann Rumsby. For several years, he researched Ann Rumsby in the Mitchell Library, the National Library in Canberra and even the National Museum in London. Eventually, he was to reveal a girl who had fought colonial perversion and brutality against women and brought about a new Australia and the introduction of trial by jury. Brian returned to Australia after twenty years on secondment to FAO (Food and Agriculture of the UNO) and settled down to write a three-act play on Ann Rumsby. The play had a level of success, but he was not satisfied. He was still in love with the girl and wanted more of her. Finally he rested after this book. Ann Rumsby was a girl who all Australians should honour.'  (Publication summary)

'Brian Hungerford is an award winning author and one of the World's most experienced storytellers, in the oral tradition. In the 1950s he sold over 40 radio plays and dramatised documentaries, along with many short stories. Later he won the top award for an audio-visual program on Bangladesh. The competition involving 140 countries was organised by the UN in New York. Born in Australia in 1935, he was brought up by his grandmother, a formidable woman, who had an unsatisfiable passion for travel. In 1940, Brian and his grandmother left Sydney and began a farming life in Candelo. Candelo later became the setting and mainspring of many stories. In 1959, with a record of more than 25 radio plays and a handful of published short stories, he left his grandmother, back in Sydney with an aunt, and sailed to Spain. He stayed for over a year but couldn't resist the urge to move and flew to London and work with the World Service of the BBC. Three years later, he was seconded to FAO (The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN) and spent the next 15 years working in Rome and 13 Third-World countries. His first country was Cuba, a country and its people he will never forget. By 1985 he was settled in Canberra living and partly living, scribbling stories, plays and, so far, three novels. He is popular on the storytelling circuit and travels up and down the east coast of Australia with a repertoire of 300 odd stories. In suburban Canberra, his neighbours also know him as a player of assorted bagpipes.' (Publication summary)

'Different Waters unravels the misinformation put about by the three major protagonists of Spain, England and Ireland concerning the disaster that was the Spanish Armada of 1588. Later dubbed 'The Invincible Armada' by snide English politicians, the Armada saga is seen through the eyes of three boys, one girl - and a dolphin. The boys live through each of the naval battles, storms, starvation, bureaucratic stuff-ups, kidnap, shipwrecks, a pagan love story and wedding, music lessons, laughter, sword fights, Irish sorcery, mysticism and dolphin-navigated time travel. It will put the reader right about what happened and how Australia, Ireland, India, Scotland and Wales, along with the United States and much of Africa came under the thrall of the imperial English language.' Source: Back cover.