The Glass Harpoon by Robert Horne
About Robert Horne
Robert Horne has been hooked on books and story-telling ever since reading Dickens, the Brontes and Captain Marriott as a child and early teenager. After studying a BA at the University of Adelaide he became a public servant and a teacher of Classical Studies and English. He has been greatly influenced by the cosmic scope and telling detail found in the works of Homer. It was in 2010 when reading tales of early interaction between settlers and the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains that Robert found the inspiration for his second novel, The Glass Harpoon – it was an idea that wouldn’t go away. Robert has a Masters and Doctorate in creative writing and is currently working on his third novel. For further information, follow Robert on Facebook.
A Quote from Robert Horne
"It is a significant breakthrough event for me personally to be longlisted for this prize. The novel has taken about seven years to research, draft, to restructure the chronology and finally rewrite in a tone pitched between modern and early-Victorian speech. It has been a journey to gain attention for some of the key historical issues raised and I thank the judges so much for this recognition. It was a joy to tell the unique story of the conflict between humanitarians and profiteers in early South Australia through the passions and struggles of three young colonists. I have in part drawn on handed-down stories from both black and white sides, so the novel is also an implicit call for the inclusion of more oral accounts in our official histories. Thank you again."
About The Glass Harpoon
When Matthew Larkin comes to South Australia in 1842 to join his brother James, many people say he is not cut out for life on the frontier. Charming and chaotic, he seems more born for poetry and the salons of London than the rough life of building a new colony. But it is his very difference that wins the heart of Lucy Bray, the smart and impulsive niece of the Governor. When Matthew meets eccentric lower-class schoolteacher and friend of the Kaurna people, William Cawthorne, he becomes enthralled by the culture of the Aboriginal people and earns the disapproval of other colonists. While Matthew believes that Europeans can live alongside and share with the Kaurna, who have been made British citizens after all, many colonists have other plans. When the brothers move to their holding in the north of the colony, sheep are taken by Aboriginal people while overlanding from New South Wales. Tensions between groups of colonists rise and shooting parties begin. It is a battle for the existence of an ancient culture and for the soul of the new colony. When Matthew is injured Lucy is desperate for news and, even though forbidden by her uncle, she makes an epic solo ride to the North to find out what is really happening away from the town. What awaits her there will change her life forever.
