Southern Highlands resident Bruce Mitchell has worn many hats in his lifetime.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Labourer, copywriter, waiter, bookmaker (the one who takes bets; not the one who binds books), film maker, musician, consultant and corporate director.
He now dons a new hat; author.
Bruce has dallied with writing for some years - creating ads for frozen prawns and car tyres, scriptwriting for videos, and short stories for the entertainment of friends and family.
With a keen interest in history, Bruce's first book, 'Wide Sky People', published by Austin Macauley of London, takes the reader on the mid-19th century journey of the Thornton family from Ireland to Sydney and the plains of New South Wales.
The story is loosely-based on real people - Bruce's ancestors who migrated from Ireland at the same time, and settled on the land in Orange, where much of the book is set.
The book follows Mick and Cate Thornton and their two boys as they survive four months at sea to encounter false arrest, bushrangers, crooked cops, a devastating bushfire, and the gold rush, to name just a few.
Not one to stand still for long, his second book is also complete - a serial murder/thriller set in Sydney in 1879, titled 'Race the Madman.'
He says that it 'has everything - dead bodies, women's rights, racial tension, corruption, terrorism - even martial arts.'
'Wide Sky People' is available on Amazon in e-book and paperback format.
As the dust cover says, 'It's a story lived by many, but told by few; with action, passion and wry humour.
It tells of the men and women who saw a Wide Sky full of promise, and turned a colony into a country.'
Read Also: 'Reborn' Jack thanks community for support
