Catherine Blake

Clarinda and Henry Catherine Blake

Clarinda and Henry tells the story of the Australian Father of Federation, Sir Henry Parkes, and his wife, Clarinda.

The book is a biography of their struggles in England in the early 1800s, their hazardous journey to Sydney on an emigrant ship, their lives as early settlers in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and the rise of Sir Henry in Australian policitics and the public school system. It is a tale of success, but also of hardship and endurance.

While it tells the story of Henry Parkes's political life, there is also focus on his wife, Clarinda, a woman whose story was hidden behind her renowned husband's, but who, like so many others of her era, helped shape the Australia we know today.