Birds in the Nest
Wendy Hart
Reviewed by Helen
This is a fabulous debut, a story about the author’s family a story of tragedy, heartbreak and resilience we meet Minnie and travel with her from rural area outside Belfast to the vast lands of Queensland Australia.
When Minnie is two she lost her mother to tuberculosis which has been raging through Ireland, leaving her father to care for the farm and three young girls, with help he copes but soon he takes a new wife and Minnie has a stepmother, Charlotte and soon more sisters and a couple of brothers, but at eleven her Da passes to the terrible disease as well and then her half-brothers, Charlotte decides that they need to immigrate to Brisbane where her sister lives and get away from Ireland the religious troubles and the white plague that is taking so many lives.
Minnie arrives to this new land at the age of thirteen with her two sisters and three half-sisters to start a new life and it is very different from what she has known, the weather, the insects all very different, working in a sewing factory Minnie dreams of her own farm and at sixteen she takes off on her own to make her dreams come true.
She is soon married to Albert and at first working on a banana farm and with a couple of children soon her dream has come true they have a dairy farm and Minnie works hard more children arrive as does World War one times are hard and the Spanish flue arrives with devastating results, then there is a drought and then the terrible depression, Minnie shows her strength and keeps going, will she ever find the true happiness that she craves?
This story shows the hardships that they all went through in these very tough times and Minnie stood her ground no matter what was thrown in her path, this is a story that I do highly recommend to anyone who loves a good historical fiction based on true fact, getting to know Minnie and her family was emotional and my heart went out to them all. I would have liked to have known what happened to the other family members as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
My thanks to the author for my digital copy to read and review.
When Minnie is two she lost her mother to tuberculosis which has been raging through Ireland, leaving her father to care for the farm and three young girls, with help he copes but soon he takes a new wife and Minnie has a stepmother, Charlotte and soon more sisters and a couple of brothers, but at eleven her Da passes to the terrible disease as well and then her half-brothers, Charlotte decides that they need to immigrate to Brisbane where her sister lives and get away from Ireland the religious troubles and the white plague that is taking so many lives.
Minnie arrives to this new land at the age of thirteen with her two sisters and three half-sisters to start a new life and it is very different from what she has known, the weather, the insects all very different, working in a sewing factory Minnie dreams of her own farm and at sixteen she takes off on her own to make her dreams come true.
She is soon married to Albert and at first working on a banana farm and with a couple of children soon her dream has come true they have a dairy farm and Minnie works hard more children arrive as does World War one times are hard and the Spanish flue arrives with devastating results, then there is a drought and then the terrible depression, Minnie shows her strength and keeps going, will she ever find the true happiness that she craves?
This story shows the hardships that they all went through in these very tough times and Minnie stood her ground no matter what was thrown in her path, this is a story that I do highly recommend to anyone who loves a good historical fiction based on true fact, getting to know Minnie and her family was emotional and my heart went out to them all. I would have liked to have known what happened to the other family members as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
My thanks to the author for my digital copy to read and review.
4 stars
September 2, 2024 by Wendy Hart
