Hands up, all those readers who belonged to the Gould League of Bird Lovers in their youth! Now known as the Gould League, and sponsoring general environmental education, it has branches only in Victoria and Western Australia, but more than one million Australians reportedly were once members.

This latest historical work by Kieza, joining a huge list of his subjects ranging from Ned Kelly’s mother to Henry Lawson, deals mainly with the two years John Gould and his wife, Elizabeth, spent in Australia from 1838.

That foray into the colonies resulted in Gould’s most famous work, The Birds of Australia, published in eight volumes from 1840.

Elizabeth Gould is the artist who mostly illustrated her husband’s work and despite the knowledge that John Gould never painted a bird in his 18 major publications, he is still regarded as the outstanding bird artist of the 19th century.

We learn how John, a gardener at 13 at the Royal Gardens of Windsor, became a taxidermist and ‘animal stuffer’ for King George IV, but pivoted his skills to become known as a superb ornithologist.

There is such a plethora of documents about Gould’s era available for writers such as Kieza, that sometimes the central characters in his book become overshadowed by titbits about Edward Lear or Sir Joseph Banks.

John Gould was driven in his ambition, and barely civil sometimes to his faithful assistants, but readers’ admiration must go to Elizabeth, a fine artist who provided astonishing illustrations for her husband’s words about birds from around the world, all the while coping with multiple pregnancies, and dying soon after her eighth child was born.

Her bereft widower named Australia’s glorious Gouldian finch in her memory, a touching tribute.

Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning journalist Grantlee Kieza OAM held senior editorial positions at The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Courier-Mail for many years and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his writing. He is a Walkley Award finalist and the author of more than twenty acclaimed books, including bestsellers Sister Viv, Flinders, Hudson Fysh, Banks, Banjo and Mrs Kelly.

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