Dear Maggie by Gen Webster

 

I love a good historical novel featuring my home state of New South Wales and Dear Maggie by Gen Webster is really very good. It takes the form of letters  written by Andy Brander to his great-niece, Maggie, who was born on Andy’s 90th birthday in 1935, which are to be given to her on her 15th birthday.

The story ranges from the village of  Taynuilt in Scotland, the birthplace of Andy and his twin brother, Bruce, to Edinburgh, to Goulburn and Sydney in New South Wales, to Cape Town in South Africa, to Paris, to London and Nantwich in England and back to Sydney where ‘Old Andy’ is living in a rest home in North Sydney.

Andy has been a feature writer for newspapers as well as a writer of short stories and he sits in his room in the rest home filling the note books which are to comprise his life. It is a beautiful, fascinating story of hardships endured with love and compassion, of friendships and romantic loves, of much happiness and of great sadnesses. Andy writes with full self-awareness of his faults and pride in his achievements. 

There is so much in this book which made it an absolute pleasure to read. Although I was captivated firstly by the stories of New South Wales I know it will appeal to anyone who appreciates stories from the past, and especially this period from 1845 to 1945. When Andy was in England he became involved with the suffragette movement, and back in Sydney he watched the progress of the building of the Sydney harbour bridge.

Congratulations to Gen Webster on her first novel. I hope she is planning to write more!

Published by Austin Macauley Publishers