The tenth child of Charles Darwin, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, known as Plorn, had consistently proved unable ‘to apply himself’ to school or life. So aged sixteen, he is sent, as his brother was before him, to Australia.
Plorn arrives in Melbourne in late 1868 carrying a terrible secret. He has never read a word of his father’s work. He is sent out to a 2000-square-mile station in remotest New South Wales to learn to become a man, and a gentleman stockman, from the most diverse and toughest of companions. In the outback he becomes enmeshed with Paakantji, colonists, colonial-born, ex-convicts, ex-soldiers and very few women.
Plorn, unexpectedly, encounters the same veneration of his father and familiarity with Dickens’ work in Australia as was rampant in England. Against this backdrop, and featuring cricket tournaments, bush rangers, sheep driving, shifty stock and station agents, frontier wars and first encounters with Australian women. Plorn meets extraordinary people and enjoys wonderful adventures as he works to prove himself.
You might also like
