Touch Me Not
by Pat Studdy-Clift
ISBN 978-0-85905-654-0, (New, 2017), A4, 86 pages, well illustrated, 255 grams.
$30.00* + POST
This is an historical novel, based on fact and brimful of the adventures, trials and triumphs of one pioneering family – the Gadens. In 1923 with two small babies, aboard the lugger "Chantress", their adventurous father and his brave-hearted wife headed into the uncivilised part of Australia now known as Kakadu National Park, only to find themselves living in "bough sheds" at the mercy of tropical cyclones, buffalo bulls, fierce snakes and primeval crocodiles, to mention a few of their hazards. Add to this a daughter Madge, who was not only a gifted pianist, but also a "darling". She touched the hearts of many, world-wide, when leprosy struck both her and her father. Top this with the inferno of World War Two as Madge, the mixed-race patients and their carers on Channel Island in Darwin Harbour faced the bombing of Darwin. History leads us through a record of man's inhumanity, but also man's humanity to man.