A Fence Around The Cuckoo

by Ruth Park 

This is Park's autobiography and tells of her childhood growing up during the Depression. The daughter of "a bridge builder and road maker" and a "slender city girl", she spent the early years of her childhood "like a bear cub or a possum, alone in the forest". The family moved around as her father's work took them to all types of remote parts of King Country, making roads. Their tent was always pitched near a creek and after breakfast each morning the young Ruth would head off and explore the surrounding bush - it was her own childhood kingdom. 

This is a beautifully written and engaging autobiography, full of family characters and self-reflection. Superb. 

Park wrote several novels, children's novels, non-fiction and radio plays. 

Paperback in good condition with photographs. Published 1992.