This special edition commemorates the centenary of Elyne Mitchell’s birth and contains The Silver Brumby and three other favourites: Silver Brumby’s Daughter, Silver Brumbies of the South and Silver Brumby Kingdom. These much-loved classics tell the story of Thowra, the magnificent silver stallion, king of the brumbies. Whether you are enjoying the Silver Brumby series for the first time or rediscovering it after many years, this is a book to be treasured.
Also included in this beautiful edition is a specially commissioned biographical note of Elyne Mitchell, who was born in 1913 and went on to become one of Australia’s most successful and popular authors. The biographical note also contains photographs that depict Elyne in many other areas of her long and distinguished life, including that of daughter, wife, mother, sportswoman, horsewoman, farmer and environmentalist.
Acknowledgements
My thanks go firstly to my family for their support and patience throughout the six years I have taken to research and write this book. I am especially grateful to my husband, Mark, and daughter, Sarah, for their assistance with proof reading. Lucy Hemsley played a significant inspirational role in the many hours we spent together in her house in Somerset in England discussing our Australian childhoods in the 1950s. Christina Hughes-Onslow (née Hay) in London contributed similarly, reminding me of some of our shared childhood experiences.
I thank too Fiona Inglis and her staff at Curtis Brown for their guidance and support. Shona Martyn and Fiona Henderson, my publishers at HarperCollins, have been most helpful; indeed it was Fiona’s challenge many years ago which inspired me to write the memoir. Still with HarperCollins, I am very grateful for Amanda O’Connell’s professional editing and advice and also to Deonie Fiford, Simone Ford and Rowena Lennox: together they have made a marvellous team with which to work. I also thank Natalie Winter for her beautiful cover design.
Professor Richard Freadman and Professor Sue Thomas at La Trobe University have so ably and enthusiastically picked up where Elyne left off, rekindling my interest in Australian autobiography and providing inspiring guidance. Elyne Mitchell: A Daughter Remembers is the creative element in a Ph.D at La Trobe University. My gratitude also goes to Dr Evelyn Kerslake at the Open University in England for early guidance about Family History Research.
Marie-Louise Ayers and Emma Jolley at the National Library of Australia have helped with my research. The staffs of the State Libraries of Victoria and New South Wales, the Boroondara Library in Hawthorn and the Elyne Mitchell Library in Corryong have also played an important role, as have the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Victoria and New South Wales that provided all the certificates I needed for family history research. The Australian War Memorial in Canberra answered many questions relating to military history. I am grateful to the Victorian Writers Centre and the Fellowship of Australian Writers (Queensland) for practical advice and encouragement. The Man from Snowy River Museum with its assemblages of Mitchell family memorabilia has been a useful source of reference.
Prue Webb, the archivist at St Catherine’s School, provided access to the school archives and information about Elyne’s education, while Janet Howse, the archivist at Cranbrook School in Sydney, assisted with similar information about my father Tom’s formative years.
Michael Collins Persse, a distinguished and long-standing member of staff at Geelong Grammar, has been a family friend and shared reminiscences over many decades. My relative Tim Honnor, who shares my interest in our mutual family histories, has also provided background information.
I wish to thank Euan Littlejohn and Dr Rowan Swaney for their assistance with my manuscript. I am very grateful to Prue Grieve for many interesting hours talking about our extended family histories. Over the years Mary Greenshields has been a wonderful support and has helped immensely in so many different ways.
It has been a great pleasure for me to include family photographs in Elyne Mitchell: A Daughter Remembers taken by my parents and Upper Murray photographers Albert Mildren, Jim Nicholas and Glenn Wilson.
I thank too my extended family and friends, particularly those from the Upper Murray, my teachers and the nuns and staff of Ursula College and Bruce Hall at ANU, all of whom have contributed in some way to my early years and indeed to my memoir. Last, but certainly not least, is my special gratitude to my parents for all they have given me – individually and together.
Author’s Note
My parents, Tom and Elyne, left rich manuscript and correspondence archives, from which I have done my research. Both Tom and Elyne wrote about similar subjects. In the early years after they were married they wrote together articles for The Australian and New Zealand Ski Year Book. After the Second World War their interests diverged, although Elyne continued to draw inspiration from some of Tom’s family stories and sources.
In writing Elyne Mitchell: A Daughter Remembers, I have also drawn extensively on Elyne’s travel journals and my own diaries and memory. Throughout the text I have reproduced conversations I recall having with various family members and friends. In particular, my father, Tom, was a wonderful raconteur who often repeated his stories, so that I remember them almost word for word.
I accept full responsibility for any factual errors.
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2012
This edition published in 2012
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Honor Auchinleck 2012
The right of Honor Auchinleck to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Auchinleck, Honor.
Elyne Mitchell: a daughter remembers / Honor Auchinleck.
ISBN 978 0 7322 9349 9 (pbk.)
ISBN 978 0 7304 9531 4 (epub)
Includes bibliographical references.
Auchinleck, Honor – Childhood and youth.
Mitchell, Elyne, 1913-2002.
Mothers – Biography.
306.8743092
Cover design by Natalie Winter
Elyne Mitchell, Honor Auchinleck
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