Only Birds Above by Portland Jones
About Portland Jones
Portland Jones is a writer, lecturer and horse trainer who lives and works in the Swan Valley. She has a PhD in Literature and her first novel, Seeing the Elephant, was shortlisted for the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. Only Birds Above is her second novel. She has also co-authored a non-fiction book, Horses Hate Surprise Parties. Portland lives and works in the Swan Valley and is currently working on a third novel and another non-fiction book. For further information, visit:
A Quote from Portland Jones
“I am absolutely honoured to be long listed for the ARA Historical Novel Prize. It is simultaneously exciting and humbling to see my work in such amazing company.
When I was small my grandmother would hold me on her knee and tell me the sorts of stories that many would consider inappropriate for a child. These stories started a life long love of history that, if anything, grows stronger as I age because to me history isn’t just stories about the past it’s a kind of medieval here be dragons map for the future. I often think about my grandmother when I’m writing and I believe that in honouring those that came before us we seek to both understand our present moment and to navigate the hazards of the future. Because of this, in the current era of uncertainty and change, the work of the HNSA is of even more importance and I am extremely grateful for their support of historical fiction.”
About Only Birds Above
This is the story of Arthur Watkins, blacksmith, who leaves his beloved young wife Helen to serve with the 10th Light Horse Regiment in the Middle East in World War I. He returns without his horse, a man forever changed by what he has seen and suffered. Years later, Arthur’s children Ruth and Tom are still feeling the effects of the first war when Tom is sent by his father to work in Sumatra. Tom Watkins is there in 1942 when the Japanese invade and is taken prisoner. This is the story of two wars that divide and unite a father and son, and all the years that lie in between.
