Testimonials & Reviews
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News Weekly - 21st February 2009 BOOKS: BYE-BYE DOLLY GRAY, by Antony O'Brien by John Morrissey (reviewer) Ripping yarn set in Boer War Here is the Review by John Morrissey: Travelling in South Africa recently, following the landmarks of the Boer War, I was indebted to Melbourne author Antony O'Brien's historical novel, Bye-Bye Dolly Gray, for directions to the grave of the controversial Australian hero Harry "Breaker" Morant. O'Brien's novel is based on his grandfather's experiences in the last of imperial Britain's colonial wars, and provides an entertaining and informative - if partisan - account of the main phases of the conflict. The author has travelled extensively in South Africa, has a knowledge of Afrikaans, and has first-hand experience of the places which provide the setting for the events in his novel. He peppers much of the dialogue with Afrikaans words, and has his hero, Patrick McCarthy, fluent in the tongue, on account of Dan, his father, having spent time in South Africa before settling in the Kelly Country, that is north-eastern Victoria. If there is a flaw in the dialogue, it is in the colloquial speech of the Australians, which sometimes seems to come from a later era, and is certainly not that of Henry Lawson. Pat is a crack shot and a superb horseman, and he and his mates are in stark contrast with the floundering British soldiery whom they encounter. Throughout Bye-Bye Dolly Gray there is a ring of authenticity, which is enhanced by the reproductions of photographs of the period and the sketch-maps and extracts from Pat's diaries. As it is an historical novel, the reader's credulity should not be strained by his chance meeting with Winston Churchill, numerous miraculous escapes from danger, flippant encounters with buffoon British generals, and his fortuitous summons to be a witness to the executions of Harry Morant and Peter Handcock. However, readers will find the astonishing finale back in north-eastern Victoria a little hard to swallow. We are positioned from the outset to reject the hypocrisy of the British imperial claim to be invading the Boer republics to protect Uitlanders and Kaffirs. Those of Irish-Australian background especially will revel in the real purpose of the novel, which is to outline the difficulty with which a much larger but cumbersome British Army overcame the smaller but more mobile and better-led Boer forces in the first phase of the war in 1900, and to decry the barbaric policies employed by Lord Kitchener to suppress further resistance during 1901-2. In the first phase, Pat with his Rough Rider mates and units like Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers make the difference, while generals like Buller and Warren, who "waddle" rather than walk, contradict their own orders and retire from the fray for long afternoon teas. Indeed, O'Brien has the Boer General Louis Botha say that he would shoot any man who killed a British general, so much did he appreciate their contribution to his cause. But it is in the second phase when O'Brien hits his straps, with Pat unwillingly carrying out the burning of Boer farms, slaughter of cattle and deportation of civilians which characterised Britain's scorched-earth policy. He establishes friendships with Boer fighters and civilians alike, and as a junior officer fluent in Afrikaans he is able to exercise some leniency towards those whom he is meant to ruin. During much of the novel, the emphasis is on the vendetta against Pat and his mates, Blue and Dobba, carried out by members of Kitchener's dirty-tricks department, in order to silence them for what they know. Major Rogan and his associates Rimmer and Hurrel, together with the latter's lover, the deformed and depraved Hettie, have honed their skills in Ireland and India, and represent pure evil as they carry out their war crimes against Boers and honourable British and colonial officers alike. Hettie, with her "muff" gun, almost ends Pat's career out on the veldt, and his mates fare even worse. There is even time for romance, as Pat and Blue have their trysts with lovely Boer girls, but the hero's behaviour is ever upright, in contrast with the sinister Angus, one of Rogan's men, who delights in rape and murder. In fact, Patrick McCarthy is a paragon: a bushman of consummate skill, with a classical education and a habit of religious reflection developed under the Jesuits. This is in evidence towards the end of the novel in his resistance to the charms of a rather sophisticated courtesan who plied her trade among the sleeping compartments of the Adelaide-to-Melbourne express, and in his fidelity to his Boer sweetheart. However improbable was Pat's ability to play both sides of the conflict with dash, honour and impunity, Bye-Bye Dolly Gray is a truly ripping yarn, told in a thoroughly plausible voice. The production and printing, in Melbourne in 2006, are almost flawless, while its graphics give it a real sense of authenticity. It certainly deserves a wider readership than it has had to date. |
BYE-BYE DOLLY GRAY by Antony O'Brien (Melbourne: Artillery Publishing) Paperback: 305 pages Rec. price $27.50 |
| Review by Simon Pinder, The Weekly Times, March 14, 2007,
p.77.
A thrilling ride through history
“I just wanted (to write) an Australian story because we are so caught up in American stories,” O’Brien says. “I just got a bit disillusioned that Australians
didn’t know a lot about their history.” Characters include a young war correspondent called
Winston Churchill, an English warmonger called Lord Kitchener and the
Aussie bush laureate Harry “Breaker” Morant, who the British
court-martialled and executed during the Boer War. There is also some fascinating references to the
rebellious Irish settlers in Victoria’s northeast at this time and who
held as their champion a man called Edward “Ned” Kelly. His grandfather, Patrick McCarthy, was raised on a
sheep farm called Kincora, near Glenrowan. Patrick was a mounted soldier
who along with thousands of Canadians and New Zealanders joined the war
that ended in an uneasy truce but with Great Britain in charge. The 307-page soft covered self published book has a
reference section to authenticate the late 19th century Victorian and
South African languages, scenes and customs it deals with. While the book’s characters are fictitious, the context is entirely factual. If you are a bed time reader, you will be in for fewer
sleeping hours when you pick up this book up. [sic.] I found it
compelling reading. Simon Pinder
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What some readers said of “Bye-bye Dolly Gray”.
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Looking west into the Piennarspoort railway
outside Pretoria, taken by Patrick in February 1902. |
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Bye Bye Dolly Gray
By Antony O’Brien
After reading “Bye Bye Dolly Gray” by Antony O’Brien, I have the feeling of
having just returned from a marvelous journey. A journey on the African Veldt,
over 100 years ago, when I was an observer in the midst of many of the events of
the Anglo-Boer War of 1899 - 1902. I could see, feel and smell another world. I
was easily introduced to the Africander language of the Boers, to the style of
the country and to the futility and contradictions of that war.
But as well as being a good account of many of the sagas of the Boer War,
supported by informative maps and photos, the book is threaded with an absorbing
and exciting tale of the exploits of the author’s grandfather. I cried and I
laughed. O’Brien is not only a superb novelist, he is an historian who brings
history to life for his reader. What else of an author can one ask?
Bryan Finlay
Nyora, Victoria
Wagons on the veldt
© Tony O’Brien’s collection
Irish Echo - Australia's Irish Community Newspaper - 14th February 2007.
Bye-Bye Dolly Gray. By Antony O’Brien. Artillery Publishing. 307
pp.
"A rattling yarn that won’t Boer you.” Review by Frank O'Shea
IF ALL that you ask of a book is that once you start reading it, you don’t
want to stop, then this book by Victorian writer Antony O’Brien will not
disappoint. He tells a rattling yarn that draws the reader in to the lives of
the protagonists and keeps their attention with well constructed action and
believable dialogue.
The story is set in the second Boer War 1899-1902, the first occasion when the
British empire found itself fighting resourceful, hardy white men and women
rather than their usual black spear-wielding opponents. A hundred years ago, it
was easy to hide their true motives – getting their hands on the wealth of
southern Africa - by presenting the Boers as irreligious, backward and
anti-democratic (an uncomfortable parallel with today’s geopolitics). The rush
by young Australians to join the adventure was also not hard to understand,
given that the country saw itself as British and this was a chance to prove
loyalty.
The central characters in the story come from Ned Kelly country in north-eastern
Victoria; they are first-generation sons of Irish smallholders, with sympathy
for the political motivation that is often ascribed to the Kelly gang. Pat
McCarthy and Blue O’Reilly are part of a mounted troop who fight throughout the
conflict, though they have less trouble from the local Boers than from a secret
gang of officers and NCOs brought from kicking their heels and the natives in
India to teach the local farmers a lesson.
The author clearly knows a great deal about the political and military campaigns
of the Boer War and the disposition of forces in the various battles of that
conflict. He is also an expert on conditions in pre-Federation Victoria, on the
history and geography of South Africa and the role of the railways in both
countries. Add his knowledge of the weapons in use at that time, their relative
merits and the workings of their mechanisms and you have sufficient for a
factual historical book.
The trouble is that all this detail takes from the main thread of the story. A
reader of fiction is interested in the lives of the protagonists and their role
in the historical action; too much detail takes from the story. And there is the
added difficulty that requiring the action of the novel to fit in with history
forces too many coincidences. A ruthless editor would, I feel, have made this a
better book.
I have one other comment. A number of the “bad guys” in the book owe their
disposition towards evil to the influence of the RIC, either because they served
in that force at one time or because they adapted their tactics from them; the
RIC are unfairly depicted as the late 19th century equivalent of the Gestapo. By
contrast, the “good guys” are almost exclusively Australian with Irish names or
Boer small farmers trying to get on with their lives in peace.
All this being said, my original comment stands. This is a book which will draw
you in and if you can find your way through the confusing detail, will keep you
reading long past your bedtime.
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