Pioneers on parade. Miles Franklin and Dymphna Cusack. 1988.

Australia’s great novel of World War Two - Pioneers on Parade was written at the time of Australia’s sesquicentenary in 1938 and is set against the events of that year of celebration.

Wry, witty and often satirically barbed, this lively novel centres on two families - the English Horsehursts, scions of the globe-trotting minor aristocracy out for an Antipodean jaunt, and the Australian Brankstons, proud of their freedom from the ‘taint’ of convict blood - and exposes the aspirations, pretensions and folly of members of the families as hey become inextricably linked.

With shrewd observation it relates the antics of the social-climbing Audrey du Mount-Brankston; the world-weary and resigned Lord Cravenburn; his daughter, the jaded, wilful nymphet, Lady Lucy; and the naive boy-from-the-bush William Brankston, who falls for the wiles of the little English rose. Other players in this comedy of manners are depicted with an engaging sympathy: the stalwart Aunt Lucy Brankston; Greg, the hardworking, idealistic doctor; and Prim Brankston, the social butterfly who gradually awakens to the false values of her life.