For almost 140 years, the author of
Australia's first book for children was a mystery. Known only by the descriptor
'a Lady Long Resident in New South Wales', she was the subject of much
speculation. It was not until 1980, after a decade of sleuthing, that legendary
bibliographer Marcie Muir gave her a name: Charlotte Waring Atkinson. And not
only a name, but an extensive creative family history, connecting her to two of
the nation's celebrated contemporary children's writers, Kate Forsyth and
Belinda Murrell.
To Forsyth and Murrell, Atkinson (also known
as Barton) is great-great-great-great grandmother and the subject of the
stories they grew up on-part of a thread of creative women that runs through
the history of their family. Hers is one of the great lost stories of
Australian history: a tale of love, grief, violence and triumph in the face of
overwhelming odds.
After spending half her life educating the
children of the well-to-do in England, in 1826, at 30 years of age, Charlotte
Waring accepted a job on the other side of the world. She was to teach the
children of Maria Macarthur, daughter of former New South Wales governor Philip
Gidley King. But on the voyage, love diverted her to a different future:
marriage to the eligible James Atkinson meant she spent just seven short months
with her charges. What followed were years of hardship in the New South Wales
bush, including the death of Atkinson and her subsequent marriage to an abusive
drunk, a brutal attack by bushrangers, penury and the threat of having her
children taken away.
In Searching
for Charlotte, Forsyth and Murrell tell Charlotte's story along with that
of their own journey to discover her. In an intriguing account, the sisters
join the reader in reacting to Charlotte's actions: wondering what could have
motivated certain choices; admiring the strength of spirit that pushed
Charlotte through turmoil in the Australian colonies; and reviling attitudes
that were common to the mid-1800s but are abhorrent in the twentieth century.
The extraordinary, long-buried life story of
Australia's earliest published children's author, Searching for Charlotte combines elements of biography, recreation
of history and rediscovery of family history. It is a sometimes confronting but
ultimately heartwarming journey into the story of a family with writing in its
blood.
