Thule
By Marjorie J. Law

List price $39.95 Special price $25.95

ISBN 0 17 005 186 2, hb, 242 pp

It is 1944 and Melbourne is in the grip of rationing and war fever. Steve has just lost her job and her brother Van is ill; they decide to make a sentimental journey to a country township remembered from before the war. Unexpectedly they acquire a derelict farm and settle down to a peaceful and self-sufficient life – Van to write a novel, Steve to churn butter and grow herbs and vegetables. But things don’t turn out quite as they imagined. All too soon they find themselves fighting for their very existence.

Marjorie Law depicts what life was like during World War Two in a community that was, of necessity, self-sufficient. She conjures up vividly an existence in which electricity did not exist, petrol was in short supply and everyone helped everyone else, whether it was repairing a house or looking after a family who had fallen on hard times. Her descriptions of the countryside and country matters fill one with a nostalgia for a way of life which has all but disappeared.

The publication of this charming novel was supported by the Australia Council for the Arts.

Marjorie J. Law published widely in Australian newspapers and magazines and her stories for children appeared both in print (Wendy Fay, 1937) and on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Her volume of verse, Rain Songs (1938 ) was followed by the novel Death in the Spring (1955).