S’pose I Die: Story of Evelyn Maunsell

AUSTRALIANA AGRICULTURE BIOGRAPHY

“A vivid, informative picture of life on a Far North Queensland cattle station.”

• 227 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps, ports. ; 19 cm. #081123 (Age tanning)
• First published: Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1973.
• Previously published: London ; Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1981.
• Based on Evelyn Maunsell’s written recollections and conversations with Hector Holthouse.
• Maunsell, Evelyn, 1888-
• Country life — Queensland
• Queensland — Biography
• Queensland — Social life and customs — 1901-1945

Author Hector Le Gay Holthouse (1915–1991) was one of Australia’s most prolific popular historians. Some of his books are still being printed, and his first editions are popular collectables.

His most popular book was ‘Spose I Die, the ghost-written story of an Englishwoman’s experiences on a remote cattle station in the Gulf country.

The woman, when a young wife, found herself alone at the homestead, her husband out mustering and their first child due. “‘Spose I die” was her instructions to an Aboriginal maid on what to do with the baby should its mother die in childbirth.