13 Pairs of Boots
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley December 9, 2021
Author Mark Howison
Distributor: Bad Apple Press
ISBN: 9780648556947
Publisher: Bad Apple Press
Release Date: August 2021
Website: https://badapplepress.com.au
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We meet Mark Howison as he is taking refuge up a tree out on the Nullabor. Why, because his father has run out of smokes and Mark happened to make the comment, ‘perhaps now was a good time to give up the smokes’, as his father was a heavy smoker. His father exploded in rage and it was either fight or head on up the tree until either a truckie came past and gave his Dad a packet a packet of cigarettes, or he fought his father. The tree was the wise option.
How they came to be out on the Nullabor back in 1974 in such a situation, makes a heart-warming and poignant story of growing up in Australia in a family with a father who had an entrepreneurial flair for business, sometime successful and sometime not.
After several failed ventures, along with a failed marriage, his father, David, took on the cause of raising money for a kangaroo sanctuary to be established on a lovely tract of land in country New South Wales. He became a vocal and passionate member of the Save the Kangaroos Society (KPC) and so the basis for what was to become a massive adventure was laid.
His mission was to walk around Australia promoting the cause and fundraising by sponsorship, school talks, community events on the way around and much more. He ‘volunteered’ 17-year-old Mark as his travelling companion. One year with his Dad out in remote Australia, walking all the way was something that took some considerable time to adjust too, but eventually created a warm and lifelong bond between Mark and his father, which in later years and in spite of this fathers somewhat volatile nature, held true.
Told with a comfortable use of the Australian language, 13 Pairs of Boots return to the days when life was vastly different, the road around Australia was largely dirt with few travelers, and people were not always in such a maddening rush.
Feral pigs, bullocks refusing to give way to two lonely travelers, deadly snakes, people eventually losing interest the cause, always constant worry of starvation hanging over their heads, let alone being in each other company constantly and more, makes an often hilarious, entertaining and memorable tale of growing up, survival and love in remarkable circumstance.
13 Paris of Boots is a must read as it is, in good old Australian story telling tradition, a bloody good yarn by a storyteller who, like his father, has a very good way with words to paint a wonderful picture, around the bonds that make up family!