A Tasmanian Odyssey

If readers with an interest in the medical and social sciences are prepared to clear the mind of 21st-century advancement, they are welcomed deep into the fictional adult and child minds of the period 1914-1947, existing without it. Adults survive economic depression and the First and Second World Wars with spirited humour and tolerance-if at times sparse-as a buffer to social and religious prejudice. Their children's world view of 'seen not heard, spare the rod and spoil the child' is met with curiosity and vivid imaginings reserved only for child minds. The setting: suburbs of the city of Hobart, capital of Tasmania (once Van Diemen's Land, the 19th-century British colonial settlement of choice for recalcitrant British criminals, adult and child alike, during the transportation period ending in 1858). The written art: narrative style is predominantly sub-plots and flashback techniques, now mirrored in 21st-century filmmakers' images and captions in the creation of film narratives. Reader perseverance with this written art style may well be worth the journey.