The Locket of Dreams (23 page)

When I was a little girl, my grandmother Nonnie used to tell my sister and me many stories – many of them Scottish tales. My favourite, however, was how her own grandmother had come to Australia in 1858 from Scotland with her sister. The two Mackenzie girls, Ellen and Jane, were orphans, sent by their uncle away from their home on the west coast of Scotland. Nonnie used to tell us that their father had been a rich Scottish laird with a castle, but that the girls had lost everything when their father had drowned at sea, closely followed by the death of their mother.

Nonnie’s mother had told her that the castle should rightfully have belonged to the girls, but the uncle had sent the sisters to Australia so he could claim their inheritance. All we have left of this Mackenzie heritage are the stories and a small gold locket. As children, we dreamt of going back to Scotland to claim our Mackenzie castle. It was only later, I learnt, that girls in those days had very few legal
rights and could not have inherited the estate.
The Locket of Dreams
grew out of my own imaginings of what might have happened to my ancestors, the two Mackenzie sisters. So my first thank you must go to Nonnie for teaching my whole family a love of stories, poetry, books and all things Scottish.

The first people to read the manuscript were my family – my 10-year-old daughter, Emily; my husband, Rob and my sister, Kate. All three helped me enormously to improve the book out of sight. For all your insight, suggestions, encouragement and love – a huge thank you!

Over the last two years, my family and I travelled around Australia and overseas – including visiting the Mackenzie clan country on the west coast of Scotland, searching for our castle.

Last year, we were fortunate enough to live for three amazing weeks with a wonderful Aboriginal family in the Kimberley. The Davey family told us lots of Aboriginal stories and shared much traditional knowledge with us, including hunting, making spears, herblore and family history.

We felt very privileged and honoured to share this time with them. My character Pot is named after one of their children, and some of the scenes were inspired by stories they told us, such as Pot being guided home by the spirits. In this book, I really wanted to make a tribute to acknowledge how much early European settlers learnt from the local Aborigines and to recognise the importance of the storytelling tradition in both Scottish and Aboriginal cultures.

While the Daveys told us many traditional stories about stingrays, turtles, whales and the creation serpent, the story
Pot tells here is not from the Davey family – it is my interpretation of a story we heard in various forms in different parts of Australia. So I would like to thank the whole Davey family for welcoming us to their land and teaching us so much – particularly Frank, Maureen, Ashley and Pot, for letting me use his name in my story.

Many thanks to Looloo for lending me lots of wonderful history books for my research, especially
The Letters of Rachel Henning
– letters from an English woman who emigrated to Australia during the 1850s. Her detailed letters gave me much historical information about the lives of women and children during this period.

To Mum who, among many things, makes the best Scotch marmalade in the world, and to Dad. This book is rich with so many experiences and gifts you have both given me.

Finally to all the team at Random House, including my editors, Brandon VanOver and Vanessa Mickan-Gramazio, but especially my publisher, Zoe Walton – you are fantastic!

Belinda Murrell comes from a very literary family, with a history of Australian writers stretching back 180 years – her great-great-great-great grandmother Charlotte Atkinson published the first Australian children’s book in 1841, and her sister Kate Forsyth and brother Nick Humphrey are both published writers.

While Belinda studied Children’s Literature at Macquarie University and has been a professional writer for more than twenty years, her passion for children’s books was reignited when she had her own three children and began telling and writing stories for Nick, Emily and Lachlan. She is also inspired by her travels around Australia and the world. Some of the family’s recent adventures include living with an Aboriginal family on the remote Dampier Peninsula, staying on vast outback cattle stations, sailing the islands of the Barrier Reef, fossicking for gold and gemstones and exploring the Strzelecki Desert.

Belinda lives in Manly in a beautiful old cottage overlooking the sea with her husband Rob, three gorgeous children and lots of animals including a brave and loyal Rhodesian Ridgeback called Asha, who was the inspiration for a character in one of her books.

Find out more about Belinda at her website:

www.belindamurrell.com.au

A ruby talisman is the key to entering a thrilling adventure in Belinda Murrell’s next timeslip tale, which takes readers into one of the most dangerous periods in history: the French Revolution!