Barefoot in the Bindis is Angela Wales's exceptionally rich and colourful memoir of growing up in the mid 20th century in rural north-western NSW, in what is now a much simpler and bygone era. There were handmade clothes, sputtering electricity generators, old cars and a life tied to the land with all the freedom and hard work that entails.
In 1953, after doctors prescribed fresh country air for his health, Scottish-born Robert Wales uprooted his young family from the city life of Sydney and set out to establish a sheep farm in the bush. What he lacked in experience and expertise, he made up for in enthusiasm. Or so he hoped.
When the family arrived on a lonely hill, they had no electricity, no running water, no telephone and no choice but to make that tangle of bush their home.
From Angela, who was the eldest of the five kids, comes this extraordinarily vivid and evocative account of the next 10 years as they tried to tame six thousand acres and navigate the challenges of country life.
As an adult, Wales became director of the Australian Writers' Guild and later director of the Writers' Guild Foundation in Los Angeles where, married to a film director and screen writer, her life was in stark contrast to her bush childhood.
In 2013, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she thought of challenges left untried and thought not writing this book would be her greatest regret.
Wales has filled her memoir drama and hilarity, joy and back-breaking toil. Barefoot in the Bindis portrays a childhood spent in the bush, and is a sensational picture of Australia past.
Hear Wales discuss her book at Megalong Books in Leura at 6.15pm on Saturday, September 7. Book at wwwmegalongbooks.com.au.