Elyne Mitchell (1913–2002)
Author of The Silver Brumby
About the Author
Series
Works by Elyne Mitchell
The Silver Brumby Stories: Silver brumby + Silver Brumby's Daughter + Silver Brumbies of the South (1988) 28 copies
SILVER BRUMBY STORIES - Vol 2 - Silver Brumby Kingdom, Silver Brumby Whirlwind, Son of the Whirlwind (1993) 19 copies
Brumby Stories : The Silver Brumby, Dancing Brumby , Dancing Brumby's Rainbow , Brumbies of the Night (1999) 14 copies
Speak to the earth 4 copies
Images in Water 3 copies
Soil and civilization 3 copies
Chauvel Country 1 copy
Australian Treescapes 1 copy
Stories of Australian Horses 1 copy
Black Cockatoos Mean Snow 1 copy
Wild Echoes Ringing 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1913-12-30
- Date of death
- 2002-03-04
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Australia
- Birthplace
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Place of death
- Corryong, Victoria, Australia
- Education
- St. Catherine's School, Toorak
- Occupations
- novelist
children's book author
autobiographer
cattle rancher - Short biography
- Elyne Mitchell was born in Melbourne, Australia, a daughter of General Sir Henry (Harry) Chauvel, one of his country's most famous military officers as commander of the ANZAC Desert Mounted Corps in World War I. She learned to ride at an early age. She was educated at St. Catherine's School, Toorak. In 1935, she married Tom Mitchell, a lawyer and later Member of the Victorian Parliament, with whom she would have four children. They moved to Towong Hill, a remote cattle station in the Snowy Mountains area in southern New South Wales/northern Victoria known as the "Australian Alps." Her husband taught her to ski, and in 1938 she won the Canadian downhill skiing championship. During World War II, her husband served in the Australian army and was posted to Singapore, where was captured and imprisoned by the Japanese. Elyne managed the property herself and began writing books describing the Australian landscape and wildlife she loved in great detail. These included Australia’s Alps (1942), Speak to the Earth (1945), and Soil and Civilisation (1946). She is widely known for her Silver Brumby series of 13 books for children about a wild palomino stallion. The first of these, The Silver Brumby (1958) was adapted into a 1993 Australian film and later a children's cartoon television series. She wrote a total of 25 fiction and 10 nonfiction books; she also wrote poetry, short stories, and newspaper and magazine articles. In 1989, she published her memoir Towong Hill: Fifty Years on an Upper Murray Cattle Station. She often illustrated her work with her own photographs.
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Statistics
- Works
- 56
- Members
- 1,639
- Popularity
- #15,676
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 17
- ISBNs
- 221
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 4
That the colt from old Regret had got away,”
Two lines of poetry that most Aussies would recognise as coming from the legendary bush poet Banjo Paterson: the beginning of his famous 1890 ballad, The Man from Snowy River. Elyne Mitchell is famous for her series of Australian children’s books, The Silver Brumby, that many of us remember fondly from childhood. Her rendition of the Snowy River story is based on the 1982 film, which in turn is based on the poem.
Main character Jim Craig is a bushman from the Snowy Mountains who is a skilful horseman and horse breaker. After his father is killed in an accident with the wild brumby mob, Jim goes to work for wealthy and arrogant landowner Harrison. Here he meets Harrison’s beautiful and impetuous daughter Jessica and secretly begins working with Harrison’s prize colt. The colt is later taken away with the Brumby mob and Jim must do his best to return them. The story has lots of action, a few fairly obvious family secrets and dramas, and some romance. There are classic Aussie bush legends such as Clancy of the Overflow, beautiful horses and scenery. The story is probably better than the writing, but this was a pleasant nostalgic piece of Australiana.… (more)