Beside the Lake: A Ballarat Childhood

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Number of Pages: 246

Life in a clerical household is presented here not as an exercise in sombre piety but as an account of normal, often hilarious ‘goings-on’ at Bishopscourt. Mary Steele’s recollections are vivid, for the city of Ballarat was (and is) a memorably beautiful place with a rich history, celebrated in this book. But other things about her childhood were striking too – the weight of the British Empire, World War II and the social revolution it engendered, an austere but solid schooling, and a closeness to nature in the midst of city life. This book ranges over the myriad ways in which this child’s imagination was nourished.