Miles Franklin
How Miles Franklin's brilliant career began
Libby Hathorn and Phil Lesnie

In the 1890's, in Australia, teenager Stella Miles Franklin, was a governess in a small rural town. She taught a family of 4 children in the shed on their farm. However, she longed to be a writer and wanted to leave the rural town and make a life of her own in the city to pursue her dreams.
She was revolutionary. It was a time when men were the writers and the poets. Women didn't work and follow careers. She travelled overseas and refused marriage proposals to become a writer of great standing. Her most famous book was, My Brilliant Career. There is now a literature award, The Miles Franklin Literary Award, in her honour.

Look at the front cover

What do we learn about the character of Miles Franklin, from the front cover?
With the little you know about her life, what does her movement on the cover suggest to you?
Is she a typical young woman in the country in early Australia? Why do you think this?
Why do you think the illustrator chose to draw her from behind and not show her face?

Read and discuss

Read the story through and pause to discuss where necessary as you go.
In writing this book, Libby Hathorn has imagined some of the characters and some of the events in the story to make it more interesting. She has maintained the basic truths of Miles Franklin's life and researched what life was like at the time to reflect the time in Australia's history.
Characters that are realistic are often added to historical fiction texts
Do you think the character of Imp is real? Why or why not?
What do Imp and Miles Franklin have in common? How are their characters alike? How are they also like the bird?
Can you explain why Libby Hathorn has included the story of Imp and the bird in the story of Miles Franklin's start in life?

Life in Rural Australia in the late 1890's
What do we learn about the life of children in Australia at this time? Who learnt to read and write? How did you learn? What jobs did farm children do?
What was the usual role of women?
How difficult would it have been for Miles Franklin to challenge the traditional role of women in those days?

Discuss why you think Libby Hathorn has written this book? Are there messages in this story for us too?

Check these:

Last week we discussed the basic features of historical fiction. Do you think the story of Miles Franklin fits the category of Historical Fiction? Check them off from the list that follows:

• The setting is a real location with a set time period.
• The characters are real people that could be real or made up.
• The plot is a mixture of made up events and events that really happened.