![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This included a harrowing week lost and alone in the bush, surviving on grass and scavenged kangaroo meat, culminating in an encounter with Aboriginal Australians that not only saved his life but altered his perceptions.Facey genuinely feels "thrilled" looking back on his life, despite the terrible hardships endured, because he relished a challenge and never faltered in his belief at "having a go at something", always "ready to take a risk and try something new. Yet the horrors are leavened with stories of humour and great achievement in farming the unforgiving country of rural Western Australia, raising a big family during the Depression and teaching himself to read and write.The standout chapters for me were the author's recollections of his six months on a cattle drive through central Western Australia in 1909. This book has been on my "must read" list for a long time, if only for the fact that everyone around me has read it, never mind its canonical status in Australian literature.A Fortunate Life is an epic yarn of one man's life, simply told, from the horrors of his mistreatment as a child farm worker to the even greater horrors of his experiences at Gallipoli in World War One. ![]()
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