Read The Road to Gundagai Online
Authors: Jackie French
The Road to Gundagai (46 page)
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.
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.
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.
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
Copyright © Jackie French and E French 2013
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
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive, Albany, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
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77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom
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)
French, Jackie, Matilda saga ; 3.
For ages 11+
Orphans—Australia—Juvenile fiction.
Circus—Juvenile fiction.
Circus performers—Juvenile fiction.
Australia—Social conditions—1929–1939—Juvenile fiction.
A823.3
Cover design by Christa Moffitt, Christabella Designs
Cover images by
shutterstock.com
