‘It’s always hot in Australia. And you can ride your horses to school and tie them up under a gumtree,’ my mother told us with a knowing smile, as we stared at her in awe. Gathered on a cold, misty morning in their Georgian mansion on the shores of Lough Derg in depressed 1950s Ireland, with debts mounting, this seemed like a dream for the prominent Esmonde family, including the teller of this captivating memoir, then seven-year-old Rosemary. Hardship awaits down under, but Rosemary and her family bravely fight back, seizing every opportunity and experience with courage and humour. Rosemary’s remarkable story has many twists and turns as she moves from Tipperary to remote New South Wales, post-war Canberra, as a young bride to Papua New Guinea, apple orcharding and setting up a successful business in Tasmania and sailing the Mediterranean (where she and her husband Rob are compiling their fifth photographic coffee table book on sailing, seafood and wine). Come with her as we meet her illustrious ancestors (including two Victoria Cross recipients), encounter exotic countries and fascinating people, always living her life to the brim.
