The Will Of The Tribe Death Of A Swagman

Arthur Upfield's scrapbook of press cuttings, etc. for the novels, The will of the tribe and Death of a swagman.

A cypher that looked like a child's game of noughts-and-crosses; a strip of hessian bag; the rhythmic clanging sound of the turning windmill suddenly breaking the silence of the night; the minister who seemed out of place as a churchman: these were some of the more puzzling aspects of the case of the murdered swagman noticed by the keen eyes of Robert Burns, alias Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, alias "Bony". Our distinctive student of violence arrives incognito at Merino, in western New South Wales, and, as a first move, provokes the local sergeant to lock him up. The method in Bony's madness is that while serving a semi-detention sentence and being made to paint the police station, he wears the best of all disguises... Here again is a first-rate Upfield mystery, made warm by humour, by the background characters and his portrayal of the natural background scene. - The Age Upfield at his best. - Adelaide News

It is in a harsh and eerie landscape - the crater formed by the meteor they called "The Stranger" - that another stranger is found... dead. In an area where the presence of every outsider is announced by the bush telegraph, how had this man passed unreported? Who was he? How had he died? No tracks around the crater and no stranger in town. It soon becomes obvious to Bony that both the locals and the Aboriginals are guarding a secret - untill the will of the Tribe breaks their silence... This is undoubtedly Upfield's strongest book, for a number of reasons: 1) Bony is at his best in his detective work; 2) Upfield is at his best in studying the social and cultural situations of the white and the Aboriginals; 3) though the physical setting is less intense than in some other works, it is strong here; 4) Upfield's symbolism - especially in the use of the metaphor of clothes vs nakedness - is extraordinarily complex. There is no doubt that this particular book is a masterpiece in every way. - from The Spirit of Australia by Ray Browne.

Arthur Upfield's scrapbook of press cuttings, etc. for the novels, Death of a swagman, The devilʼs steps and The bone is pointed.

Eight hundred kilometres from the sea, Lake Otway is dying. Heat, drought, and thirst-crazed animals take their toll. When Ray Gillen, lucky lottery winner, went for a swim one night and never came back, some thought it was an accident, or was it murder? As the water level drops, five men and two women wait beside the shrinking lake - for the body, the money, or neither. And watching it all, Bony… Death of a Lake is as intense and unremitting story as Upfield ever wrote. It should be, for it is very close to Upfield's personality ... being the real Albermarle Station where Upfield was first hired as a cook in the 1920s and where he began his writing career ... In a hut at Wheeler's Well Upfield was inspired to write his Bony after a visit by Upfield's friend tracker Leon Wood. - from The Spirit of Australia by Ray Browne. Bony - a unique figure among top-flight detectives - BBC

It is the 1860s and colonial Australia is no longer just a dumping ground for the pitiful throw-offs of harsh English justice. The colony is rapidly taking on a new identity as a land where opportunities abound for those who are up to the challenge. Many prosper, while others prefer to tramp the endless bush and enjoy what the land has to offer, and still other turn to a life of crime. Into this wild land of rare beauty and constant change comes a quiet young orphan boy named Brennan. He knows nothing of his origins and his only family is an old lady who nurtures him into his teenage years. When she can no longer care for him, he packs a modest swag and a little money and heads into the bush. On the track, he meets up with two old swagmen who quickly become his new family. Tramping the bush tracks, they find many adventures. Set against the backdrop of the beautiful bush, they experience bushfires, floods, droughts, harsh winters, blistering summers, and the kindness and sometimes cruelty of the inhabitants. As he grows, Brennan begins to develop strange mystical powers that come to him in moments of great fear or passion. He is excited and scared at the same time, and he longs to understand his origins and find the source of these mystical powers in the hope that he can learn to master them. This story provides an insight into early Australian colonial history, the land, and its people, as seen through the eyes of a mystical young swagman.

Arthur Upfield created Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte (Bony) who features in twenty-nine novels written from the 1920s to the the 1960s, mostly set in the Australian Outback. He was the first Australian professional writer of crime detection novels. Upfield arrived in Australia from England on 4 November 1911, and this collection of twenty-two critical essays by academics and scholars has been published to celebrate the centenary of his arrival. The essays were all written after Upfield’s death in 1964 and provide a wide range of responses to his fiction. The contributors, from Australia, Europe and the United States, include journalist Pamela Ruskin who was Upfield’s agent for fifteen years, anthropologists, literary scholars, pioneers in the academic study of popular culture such as John G. Cawelti and Ray B. Browne, and novelists Tony Hillerman and Mudrooroo whose own works have been inspired by Upfield’s. The collection sheds light on the extent and nature of critical responses to Upfield over time, demonstrates the type of recognition he has received and highlights the way in which different preoccupations and critical trends have dealt with his work. The essays provide the basis for an assessment of Upfield’s place not only in the international annals of crime fiction but also in the literary and cultural history of Australia.

When Bonaparte sets out to investigate two bizarre murders near the dusty little outback town of Carie, all the odds are against him. The crimes were committed a year before, the scent cold, and any clues that may have survived have been confused by a ham-fisted city policeman. As Bony follows the trail he is first threatened and then attacked by the mysterious murderer. It's a case that will tax his ingenuity to the limit... if he lives to see it through. Excellent set up for a story, good cast of characters, perplexing confusion of suspects, and perceptive unravelling of tangled threads. - Kirkus Review

THE SWAGMAN SAGA is an Australian colonial myth of the vagrant archetype traveling through time and over the landscapes of the Great South Land. From the convict settlement in Port Jaxson, to an epic trek across the continent with his magic swag and The Old Grey Mare, to the founding of Freemanport in Western New Holland. Counterpointing his story is that of Matilda, born of a line of Cornish witches who bear the magic trunk which binds the destiny of all the characters. The Swagman, Tai Foon the Golem Chinese Warrior, Biddi and Yanda their Aboriginal friends, and the antagonist - a terrible agent of Law and Order, The Nemesis of Witches, Captain Sharman, a shape-changer riding a carnivorous black steed. The Swagman and the Witch create a new life together, founding a nation that embraces people from all the lands on earth.

Myra Thomas, apparently dressed only in nightgown and slippers, has walked off the train somewhere along the 650 kilometres of track that crosses the Nullarbor Plain. With two camels and a dog, Bony begins to search the desert in search of her. He finds more than he bargains for - only to find a group of people imprisoned in the extensive limestone caves beneath the desert plain... This is surely one of the two or three strongest of Upfield's novels. It is an eerie mixture of Aboriginal folk customs and white man's greed and lust for revenge. Something of a study of abnormal psychology, it nevertheless turns on people's very natural and nasty feelings... This book is a splendid combination of plot, setting and development. - from The Spirit of Australia by Ray Browne.