Swords and Crowns and Rings
by Ruth Park
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Description
Growing up in an Australian country town before World War I, Jackie Hanna and Cushie Moy are carefree and innocent in their love for each other. But Jackie is a dwarf, and his devotion to the beautiful Cushie is condemned by her parents. This is the story of their life-long odyssey, and of the triumph of a special kind of courage. In Swords and Crowns and Rings Ruth Park brilliantly captures the mood and tempo of Australian life from 1907 until 1931.Tags
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Member Reviews
Great story, lots of detail about life in Australia at the time (1907 to 1931 or thereabouts). The sort of story you want to keep reading to know what happens. Made me want to read more of Ruth Park (I've read some before but didn't really remember it), and also more about Australian history of the period. I didn't actually read this book, I listened to it on CD, which I think made it better.
This was one of the most interesting stories I have ever read. I could really empathise with the main characters in the book and their struggle to be together. It was interesting enough to want to read every word and the description of place was great.
To see my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2009/09/29/swords-and-crowns-and-rings-by-ruth-park/
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Author Information
67+ Works 3,860 Members
Ruth Park was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1917. Park began writing early, regularly contributing poems and stories to the New Zealand Herald's children's page, as well as the Auckland Star and overseas newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. She attended secondary school by means of a National show more Scholarship. she was offered a copyholder's job in the proofreading department of the Auckland Star. Park met and married D'Arcy Niland and after their marriage the Nilands travelled through the outback of Australia for a time before settling in Surry Hills in Sydney where they earned a living writing full-time. While still in the outback they received news that the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) had accepted a series of radio plays as well as Park's stories about a mouse for the Children's Session, thus beginning their long association with ABC radio. Park has written books for children of all ages; novels for adults; well-researched documentaries of place; scripts for film, television and, in greatest number, radio; articles for journals and newspapers, especially for the women's page of the Sydney Morning Herald; three autobiographies; plays and short stories; a biography of Les Darcy and an informative guide to Australia for German readers. Much of her work has been translated into other languages, some novels have been produced for stage, television and film and she has won numerous awards. Her most famous books are the trilogy of Missus, The Harp in the South and Poor Man's Orange, along with Swords and Crowns and Rings which won the Miles Franklin Award in 1977. She passed away in 2010. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Important places
- Australia
- Important events
- Great Depression
- Epigraph
- In the landscape of Spring there is neither better nor worse;
The flowering branches grow naturally,
Some long, someshort.
~ An old Chinese poem - Dedication
- For
Gwen Gerrard Kennedy
and Her Friends - First words
- In a red weeping dawn the child was born at last.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It seemed that he had always felt it beating, ever since he was born.
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- Members
- 130
- Popularity
- 250,495
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.98)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 18
- ASINs
- 1
