A FORTUNATE LIFE by A B Facey

Imagine you are sitting around a campfire. The fire crackles, the sweet smell of smoke touches the air, the sounds of the night bush orchestra provide accompaniment to the rhythm of the storyteller's tales.

His style is personal and intimate, as a friend, seated beside you. His stories are in plain speech, "no frills" as his younger years were never spent in school. His memory sharpened by the lack of any written diary and forged by the gauntlet of challenging experiences flow easily in measured rhythm, evidencing the repetition of his yarns over many years.

The stories flow in vivid and precise detail, creating authenticity and compelling interest. They unearth an early social history of rural Australia through the eyes of a humble, common, uneducated man, revealing his courage, resilience and choice of 'never becoming a victim'. It stands in sharp contrast to the intellectual pursuits of academia.

A parentless beginning pushed him to Western Australia where most of his story takes place, facing slavery, hardship, and bittersweet life in the bush. The love story of a marriage with Evelyn and relationship with his seven children show his tenderness. His role as a union rep and local councillor, support for the community and social justice.

The suffering and violence he experienced in life, including Gallipoli, is often raw, but with restraint.

A B Facey, the master storyteller developed his passion for literature in his final years which enabled him to craft a work regarded as a classic in Australian literature. A book every Australian should read. It resonated with accounts of the life of my father and grandfather during the Great Depression and their struggle for survival.

I have great admiration for Facey, the quintessential essence of the Australian bush pioneer. His spirit is amplified in the final sentence of the book, from which comes the title - "I have been very fortunate ..."