The Midlands

1916.

As The Great War rages overseas, eleven-year-old Lorna Whittle and her four sisters fight their own battles in the heart of Tasmania’s Midlands. Left with their cold and distant mother while their gentle father heads to war, the Whittle girls unleash their mischief amongst the wild countryside surrounding their grandparent’s farmhouse —painting cows, brewing stink bombs, and waging war on rules of every kind. But when their father’s first letter arrives, Lorna begins to suspect they’ve been told a lie. Could it be that their father isn’t fighting on the battlegrounds of Europe after all?

Then comes the mysterious new governess — French, flawless, and far too curious about the Whittles’ lives. Why has she come to Australia? And what connection could she possibly have to their missing father? Set against the stark beauty of the Midlands, this haunting mystery entwines unexpected twists and turns in a story that celebrates love, forgiveness, and the bonds of sisterhood.

A wonderful, funny and heartwarming tale from the multi-award winning author of Aster’s Good, Right Things.

About the Author

Kate Gordon grew up in a very bookish house, with two librarian parents, in a small town by the sea in Tasmania. In 2009 she won a Varuna fellowship and hasn’t stopped writing since. Her first book, Three Things About Daisy Blue, was published by Allen and Unwin in 2010. She has since been published multiple times by everyone from Yellow Brick Books through to Random House Australia.

Kate won the 2016 IBBY Ena Noel Award for Writing Clementine, and in 2018 was shortlisted in the Dorothy Hewett Awards for an Unpublished Manuscript. Her YA novel Girl Running, Boy Falling (2018) is a CBCA Notable. In 2021, Aster’s Good, Right Things (published by Riveted Press) won the CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers, and in 2023, Xavier in the Meantime was shortlisted in the same category.