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y separately published work icon Whispering in the Wind single work   children's fiction   children's   fantasy  
Issue Details: First known date: 1969... 1969 Whispering in the Wind
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A boy sets off on his horse with a stockwhip and a magic leaf to rescue a princess. The boy is aided in his quest by a kangaroo with a pouch full of all sorts of useful items.' - Paul Collins, ed. The MUP Encycopaedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy (1998)

Notes

  • Dedication: To Anne Bechervaise the beautiful princess

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Nelson , 1969 .
      image of person or book cover 1083968037543779185.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 165p.
      Description: illus.
      ISBN: 17002901
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Armada Lions ,
      1971 .
      image of person or book cover 3910669402120296283.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 160p.
      Description: illus.
    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 1979 .
      image of person or book cover 5088734266733932132.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 133p.
      Reprinted: 1980
      Note/s:
      • Puffin Book.
      ISBN: 0140312307
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 517028270066246198.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 240p.p.
      Note/s:
      ISBN: 9781925773064
      Series: y separately published work icon Text Classics Text Publishing (publisher), Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2012- Z1851461 2012 series - publisher novel 'Great books by great Australian storytellers.' (Text website.)
Alternative title: Windgeflüster
Language: German

Other Formats

  • Braille.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

Great Galloping Bush Whiskers Shane Maloney , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , September 2018;

'Imagine that you are a six-year-old child. One day, you get a sore throat and a headache and start to feel generally icky. Your parents put you to bed. You don’t get better. Within a few days, you cannot move your legs and your back has begun to curve. You have caught an infectious disease known as poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis. It is a virus that attacks mainly children. There is no known cure. You might die. If you survive, you will spend the rest of your life as a cripple, able to walk only with your legs strapped into contraptions of steel and leather. You will be the child, the one that every primary school has, who clumps around in callipers, unable to run and skip and join in the other children’s games. Worst of all, you will become an object of pity.' (Introduction)

Australia's Forgotten Fairy Tale : Alan Marshall's Whispering in the Wind Danielle Wood , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's Literature , vol. 18 no. 1 2015;

'While Alan Marshall’s (1902-1984) contemporary reputation as an author of ‘classic’ Australian children’s literature rests on a book he wrote for readers of all ages (the 1955 memoir I Can Jump Puddles), a peculiar silence surrounds the works that Marshall wrote specifically for children. His 1969 children’s novel Whispering in the Wind was largely ignored at the time of its publication, and has so far been overlooked by the contemporary Australian publishing houses that are currently involved in repackaging and re-presenting the ‘classics’ of Australian children’s literature to a 21st century audience.

Long out of print, Whispering in the Wind is a rollicking quest narrative that draws heavily on European fairy tale traditions while very deliberately and self-consciously situating itself in the Australian bush. The hero, a young man called Peter, gradually transforms himself from the de-facto son of an outback horse-breaking larrikin (Crooked Mick) into a prince worthy of rescuing a beautiful princess from the beast that guards her: not a dragon, in this instance, but a bunyip. This study considers the narrative strategies Marshall uses as he attempts to transplant the European fairy tale tradition into quintessentially Australian setting. Particularly, it observes the somewhat convenient compartmentalisation of an Aboriginal Australia that is adjunct to, though in important respects separate from, a mid-twentieth century version of Australia populated by the mythologised figures of white settler culture.' (Source: Abstract)

What I’m Reading Danielle Wood , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2014;
Story-Telling Alan Marshall , 1983 single work criticism autobiography
— Appears in: Alan Marshall's Battlers 1983; (p. 115-132)
Alan Marshall in 1970 Judah Waten , 1978 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Love and Rebellion 1978; (p. 107-111)
Story-Telling Alan Marshall , 1983 single work criticism autobiography
— Appears in: Alan Marshall's Battlers 1983; (p. 115-132)
Alan Marshall in 1970 Judah Waten , 1978 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Love and Rebellion 1978; (p. 107-111)
Australia's Forgotten Fairy Tale : Alan Marshall's Whispering in the Wind Danielle Wood , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's Literature , vol. 18 no. 1 2015;

'While Alan Marshall’s (1902-1984) contemporary reputation as an author of ‘classic’ Australian children’s literature rests on a book he wrote for readers of all ages (the 1955 memoir I Can Jump Puddles), a peculiar silence surrounds the works that Marshall wrote specifically for children. His 1969 children’s novel Whispering in the Wind was largely ignored at the time of its publication, and has so far been overlooked by the contemporary Australian publishing houses that are currently involved in repackaging and re-presenting the ‘classics’ of Australian children’s literature to a 21st century audience.

Long out of print, Whispering in the Wind is a rollicking quest narrative that draws heavily on European fairy tale traditions while very deliberately and self-consciously situating itself in the Australian bush. The hero, a young man called Peter, gradually transforms himself from the de-facto son of an outback horse-breaking larrikin (Crooked Mick) into a prince worthy of rescuing a beautiful princess from the beast that guards her: not a dragon, in this instance, but a bunyip. This study considers the narrative strategies Marshall uses as he attempts to transplant the European fairy tale tradition into quintessentially Australian setting. Particularly, it observes the somewhat convenient compartmentalisation of an Aboriginal Australia that is adjunct to, though in important respects separate from, a mid-twentieth century version of Australia populated by the mythologised figures of white settler culture.' (Source: Abstract)

Great Galloping Bush Whiskers Shane Maloney , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , September 2018;

'Imagine that you are a six-year-old child. One day, you get a sore throat and a headache and start to feel generally icky. Your parents put you to bed. You don’t get better. Within a few days, you cannot move your legs and your back has begun to curve. You have caught an infectious disease known as poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis. It is a virus that attacks mainly children. There is no known cure. You might die. If you survive, you will spend the rest of your life as a cripple, able to walk only with your legs strapped into contraptions of steel and leather. You will be the child, the one that every primary school has, who clumps around in callipers, unable to run and skip and join in the other children’s games. Worst of all, you will become an object of pity.' (Introduction)

What I’m Reading Danielle Wood , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2014;
Last amended 26 Mar 2020 14:12:16
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