CORDELIA'S SONG - David Stanley
Paperback $31.99 Postage $6.00Learn more about the author in the video below and on his profile page.
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Written in the style of Watership Down by Richard Adams, this book tells the poignant story of a group of magpies who are fighting for survival and the young bird who becomes their saviour.
Born with two larger, stronger brothers, Cordelia learns very early how to stand up for herself. Her parents are proud of her courage and tenacity, but they have no idea how valuable those characteristics will be when their peaceful valley home is threatened. Her father, Corzell has a premonition that something evil is coming to the valley. But the five valley clans are still caught off-guard when the Krat clan, led by Captain Kratt invade the valley and start to banish other magpie clans to take over the clan lands. During the fight to repel the invaders, many lives are lost. After receiving a head injury and falling into the back of a ute, Cordelia is whisked away to a property hundreds of kilometres from the valley. With no memory of her former life, she must re-discover who she is and where she is from, before finding her way back to the valley to seek revenge on Kratt. When she returns, what greets her is not one problem but two. In the final fight, assistance comes from an unlikely source. |
REVIEWS
‘Let the word go out into all the lands, I have not only read a huge novel entirely about rabbits but found it fascinating.’
From a review by Bernard Levin in THE TIMES about WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams, back in 1972. A reviewer could write similarly about Cordelia’s Story, a novel about several ‘clans’ of magpies living in a secluded valley in the heart of the Australian bush. Back in 1972, Richard Adams had great difficulty in finding a home for WATERSHIP DOWN, a book which David freely admits was part of the inspiration for this story, largely because it didn’t fit easily into any existing category of novel. The same might be said about CORDELIA’s SONG. It will certainly appeal greatly to lovers of the fauna and flora of the Australian bush as it contains much fascinating material about the lives and behavior of especially its birdlife, but it is also a fine grand fantasy in its own right with an unlikely but brave little heroine, in the tradition of WATERSHIP DOWN. Perhaps the film rights will be speedily snapped up and the book made into an exciting, animated feature film? It’s that type of exciting, fast-moving story which would hugely benefit from the addition of visuals to David’s detailed descriptions of the bush and its inhabitants. I’m told that a sequel is already in the works. Stephen Stanley |
Every day, right around Australia we meet some of the creatures in David Stanley’s new novel, Cordelia’s Song.
We hear their warbling at daybreak and at sunset. But do we ever realise that an unseen world of love, violence and family loyalty fills the lives of these wonderful birds? David has created a suspense filled novel that will have you barracking for the heroes in this ornithological war and peace. Tim Putman |