Parrot Pie For Breakfast: An Anthology of Women Pioneers - Softcover

Robinson, Jane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192880209 ISBN 13: 9780192880208

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 1984

Synopsis

There is nothing quite like parrot pie for breakfast. First one must catch one's parrot, of course, and build the hearth to bake it, but that is all in a day's work for the woman pioneer. This riveting anthology tells the story of over 100 such women spanning the age of Empire from the early seventeenth century to the early twentieth. Almost half of them are settlers in North America and Canada, a quarter in Africa, many in Australasia and India, and the rest scattered around the globe from Egypt to Jamaica, Sarawak to Samoa, and many points inbetween. From the lowliest kitchen skivvy to ambassadors' wives, this book celebrates the emigrants who settled the wildernesses of the world in search of new and better lives. Many were lured abroad by the promise of work or fortune; some went because imperial duty called, while for others it was a most unfeminine lust for adventure that drew them away. But all faced challenges in their homes from home that were to test to the limit their spirits, their resourcefulness, even their survival.

About this title

About the Author

Jane Robinson was born in Edinburgh and brought up in North Yorkshire. After graduating from Somerville College, Oxford, he joined a firm of antiquarian book dealers specializing in travel, later leaving to pursue a writing career. She lives near Oxford with her husband and two sons. This is her fourth book.

From School Library Journal

YA-This anthology consists of snippets of letters, journals, and diaries of British women from varied social backgrounds, written from the 1600s to the early 1900s. Whether in Canada, Australia, India, or Africa, the subjects describe their experiences in remote, often hazardous, always unfamiliar areas as they try to establish their households. Robinson has made wise selections and organized them with her own witty asides and insights, rarely judgmental but highlighting attitudes of class and cultural prejudice. She has included material that demonstrates the energy, ingenuity, and persistence that characterize these pioneers' responses to wildly unfamiliar cultures, climates, and religions. The entries convey the pain of separation from loved ones, the frequent deaths of babies and young children, lack of resources, and, overall, the boredom of isolation and often the inability to make necessary adjustments. Accounts of amateur medical treatments, surgery, and childbirth are shocking. A rich and rewarding collection of primary-source material.
Frances Reiher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0192880209
• ISBN 13: 9780192880208
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 198