The Road to Gundagai (46 page)

Authors: Jackie French

Filling:

1 cup currants (or chopped crystallised fruit, dried dates or other dried fruit, including cranberries or blueberries, or a mixture of fruits; these can be soaked in orange juice for an hour, then drained if you like a softer filling)

½ cup jam (can be marmalade — different jams give different flavours)

Method

Rub the butter into the flour and sugar till you can roll it into a firm ball. If necessary, add a little more butter.

Take a walnut-sized piece of dough in your fingers — about as wide as a twenty-cent piece or, back then, a penny. Roll the pastry out between your fingers till it’s about as thin as a twenty-cent piece (or a penny). Put a little of the fillings in the middle, then press the edges together so the filling is wrapped securely inside. Repeat with all the mixture.

Heat a frying pan for about five minutes on a low heat. Add a little butter or oil so the ‘squished fly’ won’t stick. Place the biscuits in the pan. Cook on low until they look brown on one side when you lift them up. Turn them over and brown on the other side. They take about two to three minutes each side to cook. It’s important to keep the heat low or the outside may burn before the inside is cooked.

When both sides are brown lift them out carefully and leave to cool. They will be fragile at first, but firmer as they cool. Keep in a sealed container. They will last for weeks, or even months, especially if you keep the container in the fridge (or freezer), but if they grow mould or get soft spots that show there may be mould inside throw them out at once.

They are very, very good — as long as you don’t think about squished flies when you look at their insides.

Acknowledgements

This book owes much to Angela Marshall, who has guided not just this but many other books of history and historical fiction, turning the mess of a dyslexic into an acceptable manuscript, as well as adding the depth of her own wide historical knowledge.

My enormous gratitude to two of the wonderful ‘Kates’ of HarperCollins: Kate Burnitt, who guided the book through its rewrites, interpreting scrawled notes in the margins, and Kate O’Donnell, who edited it. Kate O’Donnell pointed out critical errors in the first and second drafts of the book, from chronology to failing to communicate who the guilty person actually was. Pam Dunne, as proofreader, picked up the many, many mistakes I had made in the rewrites. I am all too aware that when kids ask me, ‘Is it difficult being a dyslexic writer?’ and I say, ‘No,’ I should really add, ‘But it does mean far more work and squinting at illegible handwritten notes for those who work with me.’

Christa Moffitt designed the ideal cover, ferreting out not just a circus scene from the time but also giving a sense of place and incongruity, the glamour among the brown paddocks and hills.

Lisa Berryman, with her total insight into every book I write, added the perfect quote from one of Paterson’s poems. This book is as much Lisa’s as it is mine. Without her unstinting support, both personally and professionally, the Matilda Saga would not have been written.

The small travelling circuses of my youth and adulthood were magic. Suddenly one morning they’d be there, the Big Top where there was once a bare paddock, the music and the smell of fairy floss. A few days later there’d be nothing to see, except the tramped grass, a little hay and elephant droppings, until they were gathered by a local rose grower for mulch. In my childhood these circuses had animals, and while the performing dogs seemed to delight in showing their skills, it could be a hard life for lions, tigers, camels and elephants. I’m glad that modern circuses can still thrive on the skill of their human performers, with no need of cages. I am glad too that the magic of the travelling circus still survives. Despite TV, internet and vast special effects in movies, I suspect there will always be magic under the Big Top, as long as there are performers.

I’d also like to give my thanks and love to the kids of one of the companies of the Cirque du Soleil, with whom I had the privilege of spending a day, then seeing the small figures and their parents turn into enchantment that night.

And to all the readers who have emailed or written about the preceding books in this series,
A Waltz for Matilda
and
The Girl from Snowy River
: a thousand thank yous. A writer never knows if a book works until it is sent out into the world. You give me the confidence, and at times the energy, to keep writing.

About the Author

Jackie French
is a full-time writer and wombat negotiator. She writes fiction and non-fiction for all ages, and has columns in the print media. Jackie is regarded as one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors and has won numerous awards. She writes across all genres — from picture books and history to science fiction.

www.jackiefrench.com

Other Titles by Jackie French

Historical

Somewhere Around the Corner • Dancing with Ben Hall

Soldier on the Hill • Daughter of the Regiment

Hitler’s Daughter • Lady Dance • The White Ship

How the Finnegans Saved the Ship • Valley of Gold

Tom Appleby, Convict Boy • They Came on Viking Ships

Macbeth and Son • Pharaoh • A Rose for the Anzac Boys

Oracle • The Night They Stormed Eureka

A Waltz for Matilda • Nanberry: Black Brother White

Pennies for Hitler • The Girl from Snowy River

Fiction

Rain Stones • Walking the Boundaries • The Secret Beach

Summerland • Beyond the Boundaries • Refuge

A Wombat Named Bosco • The Book of Unicorns

The Warrior — The Story of a Wombat • Tajore Arkle

Missing You, Love Sara • Dark Wind Blowing

Ride the Wild Wind: The Golden Pony and Other Stories

Non-Fiction

Let the Land Speak: How the Land Created Our Nation

Seasons of Content • A Year in the Valley

How the Aliens from Alpha Centauri

Invaded My Maths Class and Turned Me into a Writer

How to Guzzle Your Garden • The Book of Challenges

Stamp, Stomp, Whomp

The Fascinating History of Your Lunch

Big Burps, Bare Bums and Other Bad-Mannered Blunders

To the Moon and Back • Rocket Your Child into Reading

The Secret World of Wombats

How High Can a Kangaroo Hop?

The Animal Stars Series

1. The Goat Who Sailed the World

2. The Dog Who Loved a Queen

3. The Camel Who Crossed Australia

4. The Donkey Who Carried the Wounded

5. The Horse Who Bit a Bushranger

6. Dingo: The Dog Who Conquered a Continent

Outlands Trilogy

In the Blood • Blood Moon • Flesh and Blood

School for Heroes Series

Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior

Dance of the Deadly Dinosaurs

Wacky Families Series

1. My Dog the Dinosaur • 2. My Mum the Pirate

3. My Dad the Dragon • 4. My Uncle Gus the Garden Gnome

5. My Uncle Wal the Werewolf • 6. My Gran the Gorilla

7. My Auntie Chook the Vampire Chicken

8. My Pa the Polar Bear

Phredde Series

1. A Phaery Named Phredde

2. Phredde and a Frog Named Bruce

3. Phredde and the Zombie Librarian

4. Phredde and the Temple of Gloom

5. Phredde and the Leopard-Skin Librarian

6. Phredde and the Purple Pyramid

7. Phredde and the Vampire Footy Team

8. Phredde and the Ghostly Underpants

Picture Books

Diary of a Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)

Pete the Sheep (with Bruce Whatley)

Josephine Wants to Dance (with Bruce Whatley)

The Shaggy Gully Times (with Bruce Whatley)

Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip (with Bruce Whatley)

Baby Wombat’s Week (with Bruce Whatley)

Queen Victoria’s Underpants (with Bruce Whatley)

The Tomorrow Book (with Sue deGennaro)

Christmas Wombat (with Bruce Whatley)

A Day to Remember (with Mark Wilson)

Dinosaurs Love Cheese (with Nina Rycroft)

Angus&Robertson

An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
, Australia

First published in Australia in 2013

This edition published in 2013

by HarperCollins
Publishers
Australia Pty Limited

ABN 36 009 913 517

harpercollins.com.au

The right of Jackie French 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.

HarperCollins
Publishers

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2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada

10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

French, Jackie, author.

The road to Gundagai / Jackie French.

ISBN: 978 0 7322 9722 0 (pbk)

ISBN: 978 1 7430 9983 4 (epub)