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9781922384140

Beyond the Mirage Revised Edition

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Now available for the first time, here is Upfield's own story of tramping Australia and developing his great crime novels featuring Bony, the first Aboriginal detective, alongside real desert characters like One-Spur Dick, Mr Pluto, Dead March Harry and the evil Snowy Rowles. Illustrated with photographs from Upfield's archive. The tangled Edwardian syntax is of its time. But the attitudes expressed, of curiosity, respect, even reference for indigenous knowledge is so thrillingly modern that most of us are yet to catch up with them. As is so often the case, it is the migrant that emerges as the true patriot – and the one to see clearly those things locals can or will not.Geordie Williamson, The Australian
Arthur Upfield was born in Gosport in 1890 and arrived in Australia in 1911, working near Broken Hill as a rouseabout and cook. He enlisted in 1914 and was allotted to Light Horse Brigade train and served from Gallipoli to Beersheba, at the same time as Ion Idriess. He began writing while in the outback, and created the first Aboriginal detective, Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte – or Bony – based on the Aboriginal tracker Leon Wood. The first Bony appeared in The Barrakee Mystery in 1929, and he became an international celebrity in 1932 when his book The Sands of Windee was the model for the murderer Snowy Rowles (see Upfield's Murchison Murders) 29 Bonys were published, also in France and Germany. 26 episodes were made for TV in the early 1970s, and will soon appear again on your screen. “In the mystique of the bush, Upfield saw elements of epic power in Australian life. In contrast, his rather dry style and meticulous plotting seem distinctly smaller in scale. But that is part of Upfield's impact, creating a worm's eye view of awesome natural grandeur, a sense of human inadequacy in a dominating continent.”
* Reprinted following first edition sold thanks to review in the Australian, this has been reset to accommodate a lower retail. * Great value. * Reviews and interviews with Upfield's grandson, William Upfield, living in Melbourne.
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