My Love Must Wait

When Matthew Flinders, the first man to chart and circumnavigate Australia, set sail from England in July 1801, he left behind the intrigues of his homeland but also his young bride of only a few weeks, Ann Chappell. He didn't see her again for more than nine years. During that time he carried out incredible feats of seamanship and navigation, made the first charts of much of the coastline of Australia, and was shipwrecked and later held prisoner by the French on Mauritius.

Meticulously researched and written with great insight and sensitivity, My Love Must Wait is both a tender portrayal of faithful devotion, and a stirring re-creation of the courage and endurance of one of history's greatest seamen.

About the Author

Ernestine Hill was born in 1899 in Rockhampton, Queensland, and was one of the most enigmatic - and private - novelists Australia has produced. Throughout her life she travelled widely (and lightly), taking with her only the bare necessities, her typewriter and her notes and manuscripts. In 1937 she published The Great Australian Loneliness, a grand tale of a lone adventurer's relentless quest to explore and experience the Australian outback firsthand; and in 1951 she published The Territory, similarly inspired by her restless wanderings. This massive story of the Northern Territory was a combination of descriptive writing, reportage, personal experience, stories and social history. Ernestine Hill died in Brisbane in 1972, leaving one son, a typewriter, a camera, about $100 worth of household goods, and of course, her huge collection of documents.