Hemming: Letters

By Rachel Henning, David Adams, Rachel Hemming

Book Overview

In 1854 at the age of 28 Rachel Henning left the sheltered environment of her English home to settle in a new land - Australia. Pitchforked into the heat, the spartan conditions of the strange intense... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140570233
• ISBN13: 9780140570236
• Release Date: December 1985
• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Letters of Rachel Henning

This book starts a little slow, as we are introduced to a rather stuffy young English lady, told through the letters she writes to family members in the mid-1800's. However, as the story unfolds, I found myself increasingly drawn into Rachel's world, and was reluctant to leave it. We follow her voyage from southern England to Australia, where she slowly adapts to and ultimately embraces life on the frontier, minus the many comforts with which she had been raised. We see not only Rachel's transformation, but a fascinating study of life in the Australian outback, and the triumph of hard work in a frontier that was at times quite harsh, yet which ultimately provided a good life. A very good book, particularly when you consider this story is told through a collection of real letters written by a real person. I bought this book used, but it has a permanent place in my library.