Call of the Kookaburra

Call of the Kookaburra is the third and final book in a series following several British convict women who were transported to Australia in the 19th century. Sent to a country with a harsh climate and environment, different in every way from what was familiar, the story relates how these women survived when they were uprooted from their homeland. Friendship grew among three women who were very different in background and temperament. Louise was from a middle-class background and was well educated. Lucy is sensitive and fearful. Peggy was born in a slum and is shrewd and streetwise. Yet all three became united under the teaching of the well-known Quaker prison reformer, Mrs Elizabeth Fry. This third book continues from A Shining Path. It begins in Bath, England, with Peggy's wedding in Bath Abbey, where she marries a French aristocrat. The emphasis then shifts to Jane Bell, one of Peggy's bridesmaids. Jane is not a convict but had been sent to New South Wales by her father, a vicar, because she was an embarrassment to the family. In the small school where she is posted, Jane gets involved with the headmaster and becomes pregnant. She doesn't tell him before he returns to England, although they become engaged the day before he sails. Jane is spared the scandal of having an illegitimate baby when her son is adopted at birth by Louise, who is now married to an officer who owns a farm outside Sydney. (About the Author) Elaine Blick was born in Salisbury, England, and moved with her parents to New Zealand when she was five. A retired schoolteacher, the author now lives in a small beach community. This is her thirteenth book.