Arts
Humorous Bush ballad, about Irish people adapting their culture to their circumstances in 19th century outback Australia.My mother bought me an illustrated version (illustrations by Aussie artists who were daughters of the NZ/Aussie writer Ruth Park and Irish Australian writer D'Arcy Niland, come to think of it) when I was five years old, and read it to me animatedly.I was entranced by the sound of rhyming language in a familiar environment about landscape and identity.My clever Mummy taught me to read, early. I became a writer, journalist, comedian and broadcaster.From little things, big things grow.Read to our kids, in person and aloud, happily. ?