Don Watson, author of the acclaimed Recollections of a Bleeding Heart and Death Sentence, on the sprawling, diverse, indefinable land we call bush. A milestone work of history, memoir and cultural critique.
The bush: in Australia no word resounds like it, and none is harder to define. Far from a conventional history of it, this is an idiosyncratic, highly original and insightful journey through Australian landscape, history and culture. Don Watson sees the bush in a way that neither romanticises nor decries it, evoking the heroic labour of the white farmers as well as the cost of that labour – on the Aboriginal inhabitants, on the land, on the farmers themselves.
Most powerfully, he probes our legends, from the axeman to the swagman to the grazier, looking deep into the stories we like to tell and those we've avoided telling, in history, literature, art, in the national myth and political debate.
The Bush is intelligent, warm, witty; it's full of fascinating anecdote, beautifully written, addictively readable. Its view is at once vastly informed and intensely personal. Don Watson is of the bush himself, having grown up on a dairy farm in South Gippsland. This book is part memoir, part travel document, his meanderings through Australia acting as a springboard for comment in much the same way as his rail travel did in American Journeys.
No one who reads The Bush will afterwards look at this country in quite the same way.
Industry Reviews
“Nothing he has written quite matches the wonders of The Bush... There is no dull page or even lifeless sentence between its covers and my urge is that if anyone wants a full blast of what Australia is, was, or might be, thrust The Bush into their hands.” - Roger McDonald, The Age
“Flawlessly elegant writing... Excellent, hard-headed history, too... Utterly mesmerising and entrancing... A challenge to contemplate what it really is about this country that makes us who we think we are." - Paul Daley, The Guardian
“An overwhelmingly affectionate portrait, one that's never sentimental or indulgently nostalgic... The Bush is the crown in Watson's oeuvre, a magnificent, sprawling ode to the best in Australia, a challenge to us all to find new ways of loving the country.” - The Saturday Paper
“Watson's magnificent, celebratory, contradictory study of the Australian bush will challenge the national imagination.” - Thomas Keneally, Weekend Australian
“A loving rumination on Australia, the landmass, and those who live on it and from it... Watson refuses to be captured by easy categorisations or received opinion... The writing is crisp, witty and sardonic... Watson is an original, with an authentic, prophetic voice.” - John Hirst, The Monthly
“Every now and again a book comes out that is so groundbreaking it causes you to think about a particular subject in a radically different light. Don Watson's The Bush: Travels in The Heart of Australia is one such work; a masterpiece of research, inquiry and poetry that challenges our basic assumptions of the Outback. Watson... has pulled off a dazzling achievement with The Bush, blending philosophy with science and storytelling... A beautifully written and thoughtful book.” - Johanna Leggatt, Weekly Times
“The power of this book does come from the way Watson positions himself as both an insider and outsider to the Australian bush... A meditation on Australia itself through a reflection on the bush.” - Frank Bongiorno, Australian Book Review
“A sprawling, fascinating book... Watson has pulled off a marvel, a book that educates and fascinates at the same time as it calls for action to preserve some things before they're lost. The best part, though, is his prose: bare and dry, with a dark sense of humour. A bit like the country he's describing.” - Margot Lloyd, The Advertiser
“Elegant, intricate, sprawling and sometimes harsh... [Watson] explores the bush with a mix of academic insight and campfire yarn... In a word: hypnotic.” - Jeff Maynard, Herald Sun
“His romantic prose moves seamlessly through autobiographical tales to discuss the landscapes and histories that have shaped Australia.” - National Geographic
“One of my favourite reads this year. What a writer he is... You find yourself sneaking off from others to be with it.” - Kathleen Noonan, Courier-Mail
![Plenty More : Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London's Ottolenghi [A Cookbook] - Yotam Ottolenghi](https://www.booktopia.com.au/covers/200/9780091957155/3909/plenty-more.jpg)
