“Not one of the seven is really good” warns the narrator, but Judy, the bright-eyed, thirteen-year-old girl was undoubtedly “the worst of the seven, probably because she was the cleverest” ( SLA: 1, 6). Seven Little Australians narrates the adventures of the seven Woolcot children: Meg, Pip, Judy, Nellie, Bunty, Baby, and the half-brother, General at their family home, ‘Misrule’. Though much can be said of Ethel’s 34 volume oeuvre, a snapshot of her life and works-from her first and remarkably successful novel, Seven Little Australians ( SLA) in 1894, to her almost forgotten novel, Mother’s Little Girl ( MLG) in 1904 -reveals the various ways in which Ethel explored her ever-changing family relationships within ten years. Born in 1873, Ethel is a much-beloved and brilliant Australian children’s author known for Seven Little Australians (1894), The Little Larrikin (1896), Three Little Maids (1900) and the wartime Cub Trilogy (1915-1919), among other works. Ethel’s ability to describe children candidly is perhaps what most admire about her literary career that spanned six decades, embedding her name and her stories into Australia’s literary conscience. Ethel Turner’s diary entry for 25 th March 1898-small as it is–humorously and honestly captures the wiles of her capricious month-old daughter, Jean, as she learns to grapple with the novelty of motherhood alongside her husband, Herbert Curlewis.
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