The singing line tracking the Australian adventures of my intrepid Victorian ancestors /
Alice Thomson.
- 1st Anchor books ed.
- New York : Anchor Books, 2000.
- 292 p. : ill., maps ; 21 cm.
Originally published in the United Kingdon by Random House UK. Includes index.
In 1855, Charles Todd and his impetuous young bride Alice--for whom Alice Springs would be named--left the comfort of Victorian England for the wilds of South Australia, a place so isolated that letters from home took five months to arrive. It was Charles's dream to improve this situtaion. In 1870, Todd set out with an army of men, supplies, and Afghan camels to run a telegraph line--"the singing line"--from Adelaide in the south to Darwin in the north.
Braving scorching sun, flies, mosquitoes, drenching rains, and all manner of terrible food, Alice Thomson and her husband retraced that trek more than a century later. The result is a wry and mesmerizing narrative--combining the delights of travel writing, family memoir, and colonial history in a thoroughly enjoyable tale.
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Thomson, Alice 1967- --Family Todd, Charles Heavitree 1826-1910 Todd, Alice 1836- Todd family