A Waltz With Matilda, by Jackie French

In a sweeping tale of drought and flooding rains, we follow Matilda from the age of 12 to 33, from poverty in the city to wealth in the bush. Her story mirrors the development of Australia into a federation on a somewhat soap operatic scale. The depth of research is impressive and throws up many interesting facts about Australia’s history that may not be well known. Unfortunately the history has a tendency to swallow the story, rather than informing it, verging on didactic and with several unlikely plot points detracting from the story. This is mitigated somewhat by the use of letters, especially Matilda’s correspondence with suffragists, which plausibly adds details of the movement for votes for women. Matilda herself is a little too good to be true, her trajectory underlining an essentially positive and optimistic outlook for the new nation. Nevertheless the characters are vividly drawn and with the story ending at World War I and the dawn of a new era for both Matilda and her country, it will be interesting to see where the next book in the series takes them.