“A Room made of Leaves” by Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville has published several novels with a timeline of the creation of the first colony in Australia, the birth of what is now the city of Sydney, and of the lives of the first convicts. In many respects this is another of a similar oeuvre, but is told from a totally different perspective. It is also based on the real experiences and record of an Australian pioneering woman.
We first meet Elizabeth Veale in Devon, and follow her as she moves into the local vicarage as a ward of the Kingdoms, their daughter Bridie being her best friend. Their relationship is close, and as they mature, gentlemen call, some from the local garrison where she meets Ensign John MacArthur. It is 1788 and on Midsummer’s night events change the course of Elizabeth’s life.  She marries MacArthur, who is not the officer and gentleman she thought. The Barracks are her new home where her only real friend is her maidservant, Anne aged 15, sent by Mrs. Kingdom to accompany and help Elizabeth in her new life.
John MacArthur comes from a dubious background and is ever trying to justify his position as a gentleman, disowning his father’s trade; this chip on his shoulder is ever present, and drives his selfish ambition. After talk of a Gibraltar posting, MacArthur announces he has enlisted into the Regiment overseeing the New South Wales penal colony, and soon Elizabeth, and young son Edward are on a six month voyage down under, luckily still accompanied by Anne.
Sydney is not much more than sheds and shacks, and with her unreliable and inconsistent husband, Elizabeth has a hard struggle to survive as the colony has little resources, being dependent on overdue basic supplies, so starvation rations exists for convicts and the Authorities. 
The narrative expands over the years, and life becomes easier as facilities become more substantial, supplies more plentiful, but Elizabeth’s life is no easier with MacArthur always plotting for his own good. However, as a family they eventually prosper out there, establishing a farm, where Elizbeth’s childhood rural upbringing come to help.
Elizabeth makes friends with Mr. Dawes, a reclusive astronomer and surveyor who teaches her about the stars, while Anne looks after her son, with the aid of their convict servant, William Hannaford, with whom Anne becomes romantically involved, and these two are ever present throughout the book; William’s previous life as a shepherd is invaluable. The relationship between Elizabeth and Mr Dawes gives her strength, and confidence, and the title of the book is their meeting place.
Life was obviously very tough out in the colony and not only for the convicts. However, some prospered, and John MacArthur, troubled as he was, did become an establishment figure, but as this enjoyable fictionalised version of their lives recounts, it is very much due to the hidden strengths of Elizabeth, a woman who he never loved. Based on Elizabeth’s own journals, Kate Grenville has given us another interesting view of the beginnings if Australia.