Thursday, March 19, 2015

AN UNUSUAL AUSTRALIAN BOOK

Our copy  from a North Queensland book fair ,  Esther Kelly  early owner .
Written and illustrated by Dorothy M. Langsford , this   1922 novel  is  a  love  story  which  tells of  the  aftermath of  WWl and   includes  the  emotive  poem , “COO-EE”,  by J. H. Chinner, in  which  Australians  were  calling    from   the   Dardanelles  and  Gallipoli   to  come and   join  the  fight . Set to music, the  poem was frequently sung  during  "the anxious days of  the Great War" at  recruiting  meetings .
 
The plot tells how  John Lansbury, of Adelaide , at first studied  art   before taking up  medicine  for  four years ;  just  before  the  final examination , war broke out  in 1914.  Off  to fight  he  went , two years  in the Light Horse , and  returned  home minus an  arm , wounded  at  Villers  Bretonneux , his    medical  career  blown  away  in  the  process .

His   father  dead , his mother having  died while he was at war and his  brother , Bob , killed at  Gallipoli, he sets off on foot with a swag  for the small country  town  of  Glenowie , his birthplace, to   paint . In  a scrubbed  out house he  settles  down and , with  his  left arm,  paints  the surrounding bush.

One day in the “forest”  along  comes  an attractive  girl in  her early twenties , Cooee , who  tells  him he must be the unfortunate victim of the Glenowie gossipers –the artist.  Over the coming  days he meets her  farming  family and sees  her  riding boldly across  the  countryside on horseback.  Lansbury rescues and  buys  a  fox terrier from a tramp who was mistreating  the  animal  with  the grand name, Field  Marshal  Sir  Douglas  Haig , also called the worst general of WWl.
 
Cooee, it seems , is something of a  tomboy as one  illustration shows her  up a gumtree ,  John threatening  to  climb up after her  if she  does not come  down .
  
He  and Cooee are brought  together fighting a bushfire in which she staggers, is caught by John , and  he berates her for wearing a  muslin dress which  caught alight . There is a drought ;  he and Cooee work together to  brace a  broken leg  with  bits  of    timber. In a nightmare, John dreams of  the war and the incident  in which he was  wounded  in the shoulder  resulting in the loss of his arm. The  new Glenowie parson takes a  shine to  Cooee, plunging  the  artist  into gloom.

However, John and Cooee are  eventually  bound  together in wedlock.  Just  before the happy event, a telegram  arrives  from London saying  a highly praised  painting  by  John, The Rising  Sun ,  had been accepted  by  the Royal  Academy.
Cooee  and  John
Author Langsford , born Mintaro , South Australia , in 1896,  died at Mitcham , Victoria, in 1992. She wrote  about 13 books  and  her work was serialised in  the Adelaide  Chronicle in the l930s.