Background to
Song from the Heart
published Pan
Macmillan 1997
reprinted
1998
Basically my first novel - When
Hope is Strong (Pan Macmillan 1995)- ‘grew like topsy’ and eventually became
two, split at an obvious break in the story line. This second book, Song from the Heart, was published by Pan Macmillan in 1997.
One of the three main
characters in the first novel - Kitty - became the main character in the second. The
storyline takes her from the day following her forced marriage to her dead sister’s
husband, through the joys of motherhood and love, and eventual loss and grief. In true
family saga style, Kitty’s sons become a focus also as the book progresses, taking
the family into a new century and the horrors of WWI.
It is, in one sense, a love
story, and, as Michael Jacobson wrote in the Gold Coast Bulletin, "one
as multi-faceted as love itself. Burrows shows us love in many of its manifestations and
moods, including maternal, romantic and passionate, and love for home and country."
The novel is also an
exploration of the times, of an Australia striding into a new century, and the changing
role of women in, what had previously been, a male-dominated society. It is set in the
Gold Coast hinterland, in a fictitious town called Boolai. People often ask me if Boolai
ever existed. I tell them it is a composite of many of the little villages that grew up,
over a hundred years ago, along the ‘old coach road’ that linked Brisbane and
the Tweed.
Song from the Heart was my first foray into an overseas location. I took my WWI
soldier characters into Egypt and Palestine, as part of the renowned Light Horse Brigade,
with the finale of this part of the novel culminating in the charge of the Light Horse at
Beersheba.
I enjoyed writing Song
from the Heart. Likewise, I hope you enjoy reading it.
Cheers...
Robyn Lee Burrows
© Robyn Lee Burrows - 2000
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