Why a Booktrail?
1900s – A classic Australian Children’s novel and a gem discovered here at the booktrail! The drama and high jinks of the large and unruly family Woolcot family in 1900s Australia .
Seven little Australians
What you need to know before your trail
Captain Woolcot is a military man. He has seven children and hardly a clue how to look after them. Married to his second wife who is only the biological mother of the seventh child, together with the other six, family life proves to be quite a challenge.
As well as the baby (known as The General), there is Meg, Pip, Judy, Nell, Bunty and baby. All very different not only in age but in temperament, personality and everything else.
The Woolcott children are a typical family living in 19th century Australia but the high jinks and adventures are timeless.
Travel Guide
As the book opens the author gives a word of warning. This is not the story of model children. (this in Australia seems to be an unknown entity she states. In fact as she explains; ‘It may be that the miasmas of naughtiness develop best in the sunny brilliancy of our atmosphere’.
Welcome to the Australia of the Woolcot family. Naughty, adventurous and boisterous children whose father rules them in military style when he is taking notice of them that is.
The mischief of the children in the Australia of the time shines through – Judy leaves the baby at her father’s barracks to escape and spend time at the fair – but it is also the story of a sad time as children are forgotten and Judy is sent off to boarding school later on.
Their world, their landscape is painted with colours bright and vivid –
“Down behind the gum trees, across the river, there was a still whiter moon; a stretch of water near was beginning to smile up to it.”
The brush strokes also paint the ‘hot purple shadows’ of the landscape and make for a very evocative description of the Australian outback and remote dusty villages.
This is a side to Australia painted for children but also fully appreciated by adults.
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