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'It should have been a paradise, but paradise is what you lose, it is what you might have had.
'An elderly woman who has lived for many years on a tropical island off the Queensland coast with her beachcomber husband waits for help from the mainland. For three harrowing days, alone. He has died, his body lies in their cabin just up from the beach, and while she awaits help she reviews her reclusive life there, of nearly 25 years with him. She is a woman with a glint in her mind's eye.
'The Beachcomber's Wife draws upon the published writings of E.J. Banfield, who lived an isolated life with his wife Bertha on Dunk Island through the first decades of the twentieth century. He made very little reference to her in his work (Confessions of a Beachcomber and others). This account imagines what it might have been like from her point of view. It follows Banfield's practice, of fact cemented with fiction.'
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Dyslexic edition.
- Large print.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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The Beachcomber’s Wife by Adrian Mitchell
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 9 no. 2 2017; 'Nature writing sometimes seems to be an occupation exclusively for the solitary man. Perhaps it is an expression of a mythic frontier experience – a rugged individual proving themselves in the wilds and escaping the degenerative influence of the city, civilisation and domesticity. American nature writer Annie Dillard summed up this masculinised view in the 1970s: ‘It’s impossible to imagine another situation where you can’t write a book ‘cause you weren’t born with a penis.' (Introduction)
-
The Beachcomber’s Wife by Adrian Mitchell
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 9 no. 2 2017; 'Nature writing sometimes seems to be an occupation exclusively for the solitary man. Perhaps it is an expression of a mythic frontier experience – a rugged individual proving themselves in the wilds and escaping the degenerative influence of the city, civilisation and domesticity. American nature writer Annie Dillard summed up this masculinised view in the 1970s: ‘It’s impossible to imagine another situation where you can’t write a book ‘cause you weren’t born with a penis.' (Introduction)
- Dunk Island, Tully area, Cardwell - Tully - Innisfail area, Ingham - Cairns area, Queensland,
