The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet

he goes to school, I will have taught him how to argue more successfully than a clutch of Privy Councillors.”

“The laddie’s doomed,” said Hamish’s father morosely. “Our son will be branded an eccentric long before he goes to school.”

“There is merit in that,” said Hamish’s mother thoughtfully. “He will have his own niche. Nor, with us as parents, will he be brought up too narrow, as I was.”

“Certainly he won’t lack character, or be a shrinking violet. But, Mary, I absolutely forbid circumcision!”

Mary squealed with delight. “Oh, Angus, look! He is smiling! Diddlums, tiddlums, coochy-coo, smile for Papa, Hamish! Show him how much you are looking forward to being circumcised!”

Colleen McCullough

COLLEEN MCCULLOUGH WAS born in western New South Wales in 1937. A neuroscientist by training, she worked in various Sydney and English hospitals before settling into ten years of research and teaching in the Department of Neurology at the Yale Medical School in the United States. In 1974 her first novel, Tim, was published in New York, followed by the bestselling The Thorn Birds in 1977 and a string of successful novels, including the acclaimed Masters of Rome series. In 1980 she settled in Norfolk Island, where she lives with her husband, Ric Robinson, and a cat named Shady.

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