CROSS, Roger
ISBN 978-1-923680-14-2
PAPERBACK
Minnie Riordan
I wrote my will across the sky in stars
When Isaac Williams retires he finds a new meaning to his life exploring his long forgotten great grandmother’s life. Her adventures affect him in the most unexpected ways. It is as if she creates a meaning and purpose for his retirement.
In Minnie Riordan: I wrote my will across the sky in stars you will find a story about a woman who broke the mould of nineteenth century women, and charted a path in the grand search for the place of human beings in the Universe. Minnie meets and holds her own among some of the ‘real’ and prominent men of her time.
Her life is enriched by a chance acquisition by her father, and she comes to blaze a trail among those women in late nineteenth century, who were breaking the conventional roles allotted to them. Surprisingly she found success in a man’s world
Minnie isn’t just a child of her time. She is at the forefront of change and hope for the future.
Minnie finds fulfilment in a way unimaginable for most women of the late nineteenth century, in a science that brings elation, happiness, as well as incredible discoveries.
Of the ‘real’ people she meets, all their actions and words are entirely fictitious and have no resemblance to their actual lives. I salute them all.
Dear reader, while this is a work of fiction, the many known places and real people Minnie inhabits and meets have induced me to include a list of further reading in case you would like to follow up investigating any of the events, places or people her contained. Finally, the illustrations are not meant to be a prompt to your imagination, but to illustrate Minnie’s long lost world.
For all who peer through the eyepiece of a telescope, may you too experience Minnie’s sense of elation at the wonders of our southern night sky through the eyepiece you will, I am sure, experience the same delight as Minnie.
ISBN 978-1-923214-21-7
PAPERBACK
Everlastings
Becoming Me, Annie Richards the flower hunter
Annie so often described her life as ‘fearful’ and yet it is evident that she enjoyed a remarkable first success as a flower hunter and later an astonishing development as a ‘would be naturalist.’ With determination and persistence, she became one of the most prolific flower collectors for two scientific gentlemen – Baron von Mueller of Melbourne and Professor Tate of The University of Adelaide. Living in a lonely and isolated part of South Australia, she became, by chance, a trailblazer for what would eventually be called the ‘New Woman’.
This too is a tragic story of neglect and hardship; it dogged her desire to be a Victorian ‘lady’ and to be recognised as one of the famous flower hunters of the nineteenth century. Despite all her difficulties and disappointments she was to collect plant specimens for 20 years. Neglected and forgotten, Annie Richards was to triumph in most surprising ways. This account reveals her rightful place in the pantheon of Victorian women who broke the expected role of subservience. Annie’s life, 1845-1930, brings into sharp focus the plight of contemporary women who were bold and fearless, but unfulfilled intellectually.
Roger Cross has written this story out of a deep love of the Australian bush, especially the much maligned Mallee of Southern Australia. It was in the Mallee that Annie found herself and achieved so much. He feels saddened by the neglect shown to her by Baron von Mueller and is thankful to Professor Ralph Tate for recognising her worth, rescuing her dignity and her self-esteem.
