Why a Booktrail?
1862: A brother and sister are separated by poverty but the boy has to flee to New Zealand leaving his sister behind
The Best of Sisters
What you need to know before your trail
Twelve-year-old Eliza Bragg has known little in life but the cold, comfortless banks of the Thames. Living above her uncle’s chandlery she has grown accustomed to a life of penury and servitude, her only comfort the love and protection of her older brother, Bart.
But one day Bart accidentally kills a man and is forced to flee to New Zealand. Alone, barefoot, beaten down and at the mercy of her cruel uncle, Eliza realises that her very survival is at stake…
Locations
Reset- England - London
- A: Farmer St
- B: Bird St
- C: Anchor Street
- New Zealand - Otago region
- D: Arrow River
- E: Historic Arrowtown Chinese Settlement
- F: Arrowtown Mining Company
Travel Guide
London
No one describes London like Dilly Court. The outhouses, the old houses with barely enough bread and butter on the table, children with no shoes walking the cobbled streets and the stench of the docks.
Wapping is the area where the novel starts. In a chandlery owned by the Eliza and Bart’s uncle Enoch. Poor Eliza is an orphan and only barely remembers living in a proper house. She is used to living in the place she does now and with the smell of hemp, beeswax and the ghosts of long-dead mariners in the shadows. The docks are the heart and soul of the city and also where the criminals roam. It’s from where Bart escapes London life and heads off to New Zealand
New Zealand – Foxcamp – renamed Arrowtown
The town/settlement where Bart first arrives. It’s later renamed Arrowtown and is a real life mining town with much of its heritage still in place today. There are museums and it has a strong heritage of Gold panning which is evident in the entire town
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Best of Sisters
Destination: London, Arrowtown Author/Guide: Dilly Court Departure Time: 1862
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