Such is Life by Tom Collins

Such is Life

Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins

by Tom Collins

(The Australian Classics)

Angus & Robertson, 1968, decorated endpapers, gilded decorations on cover and spine, hardcover

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, minor rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions (see photographs)

“A classic of the Australian outback, Such Is Life is the splendidly farcical, tragical reminiscences of Tom Collins, philosopher and rogue. As Tom drives his team across the plains of the Riverina and Northern Victoria, he gets wildly entangled in the fate of others-like Rory O'Halloran, the two Alfs (Nosey and Warrigal), Mrs Beaudesart and Hungry Buckley of Baroona-recreating the humour, the pathos, the irony he knew as part of life in the bush. His is that tough-talking, law-dodging world of the 1880s, where the swagmen and bullockies slept out under the stars with 'grandeur, peace and purity above; squalor, worry and profanity below.
These inspired yarns, 'fatally governed by an inveterate truthfulness', are woven into one of the greatest books of Australian literature, combining a genius for story-telling with a wry wit and a deep feeling for the harsh sun-baked land and the people who worked it..”