Trawling the past
"The Wild Oats of Han" was written in 1928 by one of Australia's significant writers, Katharine Susannah Prichard. Prichard's work is always thoughtful and her perspectives on Aboriginal people in "Coonardoo"were advanced for her time. "The Wild Oats of Han" is based, presumable on the author's childhood in a country town in the late nineteenth century. The edition I bought was published in 1973 and illustrated by Genevieve Melrose. All my life I have known the artist, who had said that she had lost her personal copy of the book, and so I bought it for her as a present. I did not read it before giving it to her. The illustrations were charming, however, and imparted a certain nostalgia to the volume. I recommend Prichard as a writer for her other books, and would do so for this one except that it was the last copy I could find of this edition on the internet. So don't set your hopes on finding another!
