To Be Continued

Nell has a friend in need, but will her kind heart wreck her chance for future happiness? A meddlesome prank and a stray kitten, bring Helen and Gabriel together, but will he be able to admit his feelings? When Lily goes missing, will Archibald trust his wife or listen to the 'evidence' of family friends? Is Marie's runaway kookaburra the last straw or the answer to her problems? Will Teresa's faith in the Madonna bring her beloved Carlo home safely from the coral fishing? Catherine Martin's loyal, willful and feisty heroines traverse the terrains of romance in Italy, Switzerland and Australia in these nineteenth-century tales of manners.

Tom Morison is a reluctant freeholder in South Australia and unsuited to farming. But, Tom is redeemed, when his education in geology and chemistry, finally, gives the family their best Christmas ever, a 'golden' one. In this and eight other 'lost' stories of goldmining in colonial-era Australia, a colorful cast of characters star in stories of love and crime, loyalty and betrayal, spirituality and avarice. And, the eternal lure of gold and its corrupting influence are ever-present.

In these stories of a quintessential Australian phenomenon, bushfires reveal a conflagration of human drama. They deepen the pain of a tragic love triangle, bring justice to a false mate, and push a young drover and his horse to the limits of their endurance. A priest and wedding guests find themselves fighting fires instead of toasting the happy couple. A woman capable of saving her farm from fire cannot save herself from the proprietary rage of men. And a good horse and a faithful dog prove themselves the best allies in a dangerous situation. To Be Continued is an Australian Research Council funded project, led by Associate Professor Katherine Bode, that has unearthed an astonishing bibliographic index and full-text archive of fiction in Australian newspapers from 1803 to 1955.