A reviewer for the
Sydney Morning Herald's 'Current Literature' column writes:
Aptly christened 'a Holiday Pantomime,' for its adventurous action [The Bubble Galleon] is an adroit blend of fantasy and humour, and such characters as the long-nosed, green-beared Tiel Quintillian and the gallant Captain Tod, jovial and deep-voiced, bellowing his chanties and swinging his brass-hilted cutlass, are of the very stuff of children's delights. The Australian background supplies other personae such as Mr Ned Kelly, Young Marrv Dale, the drover, the Brooding Brolga, the Mocking Lyre Bird and the Ancient One of How Many Years living in his Gibba-gunyah. Even Cobb and Co find a place... It is a sustained tour de force of fantasy worthy to be ranked next to Norman Lindsay's Magic Pudding as an Australian children's classic.
The story sees the children Margery and Ian voyage to the queer land of Baste in a silver bubble. There they undertake marvellous adventures brought about by the theft of the Frost Fire and encounter other wonders such as the Timeless Stone.
