AS ALWAYS MY DEAR family, who are such good sounding boards and always mightily supportive . . . my mother Kay Warbrook, my children, Dr Gabrielle Morrissey and Nick Morrissey, Uncle Jim, Rosemary, David and Damien Revitt. Ron Revitt Jonach and his family with thanks for Ron’s sketches.
And in the USA . . . Leila, Julie, Emma and Sherry. Happy ninetieth to darling Dottie (Dorothy Morrissey). To Mollie and the gang, all the Hutchinson clan and Aunt Edith Morrey.
Darling Boris and little Bunya who make every day precious.
Thanks to all my friends in Normanton, especially the Gallagher family. My thanks as well to Kevin Miles.
Thanks to Anne and Bill Meyer for their New Zealand input.
Thanks to Dr Kate Irving for her advice on Alzheimer’s disease. And also thanks to Susan Bradley.
Bernadette Foley, my editor, for her calm patience, sensitive advice, hand holding and always being cheerful and protective.
EVERYONE at Pan Macmillan, in particular, James Fraser, Ross Gibb, Roxarne Burns and Jane Novak.
And not forgetting Ian Robertson from Holding Redlich with a promise to write the you-know-what-book before too long.
WHILE THIS IS A work of fiction, please be aware that this novel is set in the 1960s when times were different regarding the treatment of, and attitudes to, the Indigenous people of Australia. This book reflects the language, customs and treatment of Aboriginal people on many outback stations at that time. It does not reflect contemporary mores or the opinion of the author. Many Aborigines who worked on stations in the Gulf in the 1960s and 1970s have been consulted about what those times were like.
DM