The Ill-shaped Leg by Ern Carmichael

The Ill-shaped Leg

A Story of the Development of Yorke Peninsular

by Ern Carmichael

Published by Author, printed by Gillingham Printers, 1973, [First Edition] ISBN 095925191, black and white photographic plates, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, ex-library stickers to front and back endpapers, sticker residue on front cover, dustjacket shows some edge and shelf wear with some rubbing, bumping, creasing, chipping and small tears to edges and corners (see photographs)

“Introduction: Yorke Peninsular is, acre for acre, one of the most productive areas of the Commonwealth.  I set out originally to write down the facts relating to its development from virgin scrub to prosperous farms as a straight history, beginning with its discovery by Matthew Flinders and continuing year by year or decade by decade to the present day.
As I progressed names floated across the pages, mostly appearing once or twice and then fading or disappearing completely.  The few historic figures among them were too transient to act as milestones in the march of progress.  After much repetition, the mere numbering of year after year, though essential, became monotonous and wearisome to the reader.  The further I went, the more disjointed and confusing the story became.  More and more as I went along, Charles Parrington became apparent as the link which could give continuity and cohesion to the narrative.
To develop and  strengthen this link, to give an extra dimension to the flat figures and to lend a touch of colour to the controversies of the times, I have contrived meetings and conversations which can be assumed from the known facts.  This, I think, is much less culpable than the actions of historians who delight in embellishing the persons of whom they write with defamatory or laudatory epithets biased by the writer’s own political viewpoint.”