A. B. Facey (1894–1982)

Why did no-one ever shove this book in my face and tell me how brilliant it is???! Do yourself a favour and read it now! It will get you right from the start. An absolutely fascinating account of life in pioneer Australia from being a boy on the gold fields, a teen working for his keep to a young man enduring the horrors of WWI at Gallipoli and then to marriage and getting by during the depression of the 30's. This book will take you a journey through the hard but ultimately fortunate life show more of a man who will show you that with the best attitude your life is in your control.
So many times in his life things could have turned out differently or Mr Facey could have given up but this is just a wonderful life and told in a clear, unique and modest voice. show less

I am a sucker for a well-told memoir, and I particularly love those by people I've never heard of. Well, I'd never heard of A.B. (Albert Barnett) Facey, but that's mostly because I don't live in Australia. Because in the past thirty-some years his memoir, A FORTUNATE LIFE, has taken on the status of a classic in that country. And here's another thing that intrigued me: having never gone to school, Facey was functionally illiterate until he was nearly twenty years old, and was over eighty show more when he began writing down his life story. I love it when old guys write their life stories, maybe because I was sixty when I wrote my first memoir.

Albert Facey's story of his life in frontier Western Australia was a fascinating, even mesmerizing one. Born into a large family in 1894, Facey's father died when he was only a few years old and his mother married again and left him (and other siblings) to be raised by his grandmother and an aunt and uncle. At eight he was literally "farmed out" to another family who abused and neglected him. Forced to do difficult farm labor and living in filth and rags, Facey learned early to be self-sufficient and to work his scrawny little butt off to survive. The family he'd been indentured to turned out to be one of criminals, cattle thieves and drunks. When he managed to escape that situation, Albert's subsequent jobs with other, kinder families, got gradually better, and by the time he was fourteen he was knowledgeable and tough enough to manage a farm by himself. He learned about wheat farming and working with all manner of stock - sheep, pigs, horses, poultry. As a teenager he was cook's helper driving over two thousand head of cattle for hundreds of miles to a railhead for sale. Along the way he became lost in the wilderness for a week following a stampede and would have starved had he not been found and rescued by friendly Aborigines. He drove spikes for a new railroad line for a time. He was also a professional pugilist with a traveling troupe of boxers, possessing a perfect left jab, and he never lost a fight.

In 1914 he volunteered for the army and was badly wounded at the infamous battle of Gallipoli, and was invalided out of the service with a disability pension. Shortly thereafter he married his wife, Evelyn - a marriage that produced several children and lasted fifty-nine years, until his wife's death in 1976. During that time Facey worked numerous jobs despite his war injuries, which often periodically landed him back in hospital, and endured the hardships of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Three of his sons enlisted in the army for service in WWII, and one of them was killed.

And hey, I'm not really giving anything away here. I'm only skimming the surface of Facey's life in the briefest kind of outline. Facey tells his story in the most straightforward manner, filled with fascinating details and anecdotes, with no trace of self-pity anywhere. And he is the most natural of storytellers, obviously a child of the oral tradition. What you are reading in A FORTUNATE LIFE is history - history of the most personal and valuable sort. Because, for his time, Albert Facey was a kind of Everyman. And the reading world is very fortunate indeed that Albert Facey took the time, with the encouragement of his devoted wife, to set it all down for us. A.B. Facey died in 1982, nine months after his book was published. He was 87 years old.

This is simply one helluva good read. VERY highly recommended. show less

This is the autobiography of Western Australian Albert Facey. It is embellished throughout with maps, photos and illlustrations, all of which are fun or relevant in some way. It looks like a doorstop but reading went surprisingly fast, not only because it is so interesting but Facey is a captivating storyteller.

Born in 1894 he was brought up by his grandmother and out of necessity started work at aged eight. One of the most dramatic chapters describes the time he spend on a cattle drive. The show more events following a stampede caused Facey to become lost in the outback for days, an event that was almost fatal. Fortunately, he was rescued and cared for by Aboriginals.

He survived the atrocity of Gallipoli after suffering wounds that he speaks of matter of factly although they affected him all his life. It was only when I reached this section that I realized the details were familiar, and previously seen on a television production. In fact his life story inspired a television series and at least one book.

In the post-war years he was re-established in Western Australia only to lose everything in the Depression. Facey's life was as tough as a life can be, yet there is not one word of self-pity or complaint. He taught himself to read and write. This book, written in a down-to-earth style is all the more moving because of the plain, simple language. As an example, in only a few sentences he was able to create a vivid picture of the horror of a bayonet charge and of hand-to-hand fighting. It must have been particularly horrifying for this amiable guy who held no grudges against anyone.

A Fortunate Life was published when Albert Facey was 87 years old just months before he died. I have to wonder if he took the title from his unique bit of good fortune when he discovered the woman who would become his wife, Evelyn Mary Gibson, through a parcel of socks received in Gallipoli. This national celebrity is, in my opinion, an outstanding person and hero. Thanks to polaris for recommending this excellent book. show less

5129. A Fortunate Life, by A. B. Facey (read 5 Mar 2014) This is a stunningly powerful autobiography by a man who was born in 1894 in Australia, whose father died when he was two and whose mother had very little to do with him. He worked very hard as a child and received no schooling, being unable to read or write till he was a teenager. In 1914 he enlisted and was sent to Gallipoli, where he had a fearsome time and eventually was seriously wounded. After the war he married a woman who had show more sent him socks at Gallipoli, having encountered her in a chance meeting on a street in Australia. They had a bad time often but had eight children and went through rough times--among other evils, their house burned down and their Depression years were filled with adversity. Yet he calls his life a fortunate one and he was exceptionally able to deal with the many adversities he lived through. The book is very simply written but in its starkness I found it absorbing reading. One can understand why it is deemed a classic Australian epic. show less