Elaine and Moira with Miss Llewellyn-Jones

An enthusiastic group of children, whose ages ranged from 4 to 7 years, combined to create some strong winds at Whitford Library during the week. Miss Llewellyn-Jones was hanging out her washing only to have it blown away by the combined forces of gravity and the lung power of twenty or so young people. Fortunately, in this case, the very obliging scarecrow, donkey, sailors and magpies returned the clothes after wearing them for a short time. Just long enough for the narrator to fill in details of the story, Miss Llewellyn-Jones, for the mostly-adult audience.

Having turned the first book into a play the audience was then able to follow the further adventures of Miss Llewellyn-Jones as she did her shopping in Miss Llewellyn-Jones Goes to Town. 

‘Oh, Louis, is there anything more satisfying than finding like-minded people from home when traveling abroad?’ Rose asked excitedly after meeting the Comptesse de Roquefeuille in Rio de Janeiro.

And this morning, although I am not traveling abroad at the moment I felt that I had met a like-minded person. We ‘met’ when Susanna Hoe emailed me to say that, like me, she is fascinated by Rose and has included some of her writing in a book called Travels in Tandem: The writing of women and men who have traveled together. While mine is a non-fiction account of Rose’s life based on her letter’s and journal, Jacque Arago’s three volume journal and Louis’ official report to the Minister for the Navy, Susanna’s book is a non-fiction collection of the travel writing of men and women from as far back as the seventeenth century.

I did, however, cross Bass Straight last week and found this ship moored at Constitution Dock in Hobart. It is very similar to Uranie, although in this case the cannon ports (those black rectangles lined up around the hull) are only painted on. But the thing that struck me once again, as it did when I saw the ship at the Musee de la Marinein Toulon, is just how small it is. I could immediately see Rose  sitting at the table in her tiny cabin, trying to keep her hand and her paper steady as she wrote to Caroline of being ‘tossed about on the vast ocean in a fragile craft’.

l'Uranie look-alike moored at Constitution Dock in Hobart

Twice in the last week Black Jack Anderson has come out of hiding and made his presence felt.

On Monday 26th March there was an article on page nine of The West Australian showing a photo of a cave on Middle Island where archaeologists are hoping to eventually find the valuables Anderson left behind when he was murdered in 1835.

And on Tuesday 27th March Lorraine Horsley from ABC Regional Radio, Kalgoorlie contacted me about a segment she was preparing for her Morning Show the next day. Lorraine had not seen the article in The West, but had been told about death adders on Sandy Island, in the Recherche Archipelago, whose presence had been attributed to Anderson.

Coincidence? Or has our elusive pirate been visiting us again?

If you are in Albany any time in the next week or so, go to Dolly Pettit’s house (located in front of the Police Precinct on Stirling Terrace) and walk up the wooden staircase to the landing. I would not be surprised if you were to find Anderson there, visiting Dolly. She will be  in her chair waiting for him, dozing in front of the fireplace, in her bedroom on your right.

The staircase in Dolly Petit's House. The ghost of Black Jack Anderson walks up these stairs to make sure that Dolly is safe.

This week I have had a wave of contacts from both students and teachers, mostly from New South Wales and Victoria. It is always great to hear from people. One student had just read, and loved, Graffiti on the Fence. He then went off to the library and found Wild Wind and Someone Like Me.

A teacher who read Someone Like Me to her class last year contacted me to see if there was an audio version available. She is planning to read the book to this year’s class and thought some of her students might benefit from being able to hear as well as see the book. The Association for the Blind in WA is negotiating with Penguin at the moment to produce CD and Mp3 versions so we have our fingers crossed that an audio version will become available again soon. If not she will use the paperback, as she did last year.

It is great to know that there are still people discovering my books for the first time and really enjoying them. I am always happy to reply to emails and to answer any questions that readers might have. So contact me and make my day!

Cover of Someone Like Me by Elaine Forrestal

Cover design by John Canty

Following on the success of Deep Water and Leaving no Footprints, eText Press has now published Wild Wind: An Eden-Glassie Mystery. I am particularly pleased about this because it means that two of the four Eden Glassie Mysteries are now available as eBooks. All those teachers who are using the series in their classrooms will now be able to access the whole quartet again.

Stone Circle and Black Earth are still available as print copies, but as the rights revert to me, they will also become available as eBooks.

Deep Water is also available in CD and Mp3 format from the Association for the Blind in WA. Wild Wind is being produced as I type and the other titles in the series are due to follow shortly.

What an amazing variety of ways we have to tell our stories!

Enjoy!

On Sunday Black Jack Anderson and Straggler’s Reef were featuring in a Writer’s Festival session where participants got to peep into the inner workings of the Battye Library. For writers like me the Battye is the first place I go to check out facts and learn more about a character or place that I think I might write about.

When I needed details of the wreck of the Lancier on Straggler’s Reef in 1839, and the loss of the chest that contained 7000 pounds Stirling worth of silver coins, the Battye revealed just what a priceless treasure trove it is.

Almost ten years later, when all I had was the name Black Jack Anderson and a passing reference to Middle Island, the Battye again came up trumps. The Battye computer ran rings around Google and instantly came up with five references to Western Australia’s own pirate who was ‘the scourge of the Southern Ocean’ from 1825 to 1835 and could ‘disappear with the speed of a westerly wind’ whenever he was being pursued by the law.

Of course I wrote many other books during the ten year period between Straggler’s Reef and Black Jack Anderson. And every one of them required research into some aspect of the story. The Battye Library is almost a second home to me. All my archives are now kept there and it is always a great treat to be able to spend a day immersed in its fascinating collection of West Australian history.

Elaine Forrestal signing copies of Black Jack Anderson at the State Library where the Battye is housed.

Rose de Freycinet going ashore in Dili with her husband, Louis

The modern day journey of Rose de Freycinet has become almost as eventful as her original voyage around the world in 1817. Her story has been to Melbourne, to France, to Fremantle and yesterday she returned to Melbourne, albeit to a different location.

And she still has a long way to go.

Discover this pirate at Penguin Books

While Rose’s ship the Uranie waits at anchor in Fremantle harbour Black Jack Anderson has made a surprise return. He appeared on the horizon this week in the form of a contact from journalist Angela Pownall who is writing an article for the West Australian about our most notorious pirate.

Later this week the Perth Writer’s Festival comes to town with lots of interesting events and displays. Don’t miss the very popular Free Family Fun Day next Sunday at the University of Western Australia. Many of your favourite WA authors and illustrators will be there and they have some great activities for you to get involved in. I will be launching Baby Animal Farm by Karen Blair at 10.30am and you will be able to get up close and personal with some real baby animals.

Watch out for pirates and explorers though. You just never know when or where they will pop up next.

The words on the banner say 'LC Freycinet, Navigator'

Having met with his great, great grandson, Henry, in Paris recently, imagine how surprised I was to see Rose’s husband, Louis de Freycinet, in the main street of Bunbury, Western Australia!

Peter and I were on our way to Margaret River, where the Freycinet name was, for many years, attached to one of the motels. We happened to stop off in Bunbury and there was Louis. His portrait is, at the moment, sailing high above the main street in a very colourful yacht, in the company of some other famous seafaring explorers who visited our shores in the days before the British flag was firmly planted in the sand at King George Sound (Albany), thus adding the whole of Australia to the British Empire.

In 1801 Louis de Freycinet was a navigator on board the Naturaliste which sailed in convoy with the Geographe. Both ships were under the command of Nicholas Baudin whose explorations of our south west coast have left us with the lasting legacies of Cape Naturaliste and Geographe Bay. Although there was no love lost between the two men, Baudin did recognize Louis de Freycinet’s exceptional talents as a navigator and leader by promoting him to Captain of a ship (Casuarina) that had to be added to the convoy when the Naturaliste was sent home to France carrying all the scientific material and records of the voyage up to that point.

It was during this expedition with Baudin that Louis began mapping the coastline around Shark Bay and discovered its amazingly dry air, clear skies and uninterrupted view of the heavens. Thirteen years later the memory of these perfect conditions for observation no doubt had a significant influence on Louis’ decision to persuade the French Government to send him back to Shark Bay, to continue the work he had begun with Baudin.

Enter Rose … the beautiful, charming, intelligent, but headstrong and determined girl Louis had recently married. And that’s where my latest story begins.

Henry de Freycinet

While I was in Paris I was able to meet with Henry de Freycinet. He is the present Baron de Freycinet, the curator or the Archive de Laage and a direct descendant of Rose’s husband, Louis de Freycinet.

Henry was in Paris during one of the weekends that I was there and we had breakfast together at the Cafe Vauban, opposite where we were staying. This meeting, twelve months after he generously allowed me to access the Archive de Laage and gave me a great deal of help and direction, has been an important one for the ongoing development of Rose’s story.

Once again Henry has been enormously helpful. Since I emailed him the draft he has gone through the manuscript very thoroughly, underlining French expressions that sound too modern, correcting Naval terms and adding details that will give more authenticity to the book.

Thanks Henry. Your wealth of knowledge, and willingness to share it, are inspiring.