Summer at Mount Hope

An inspiring Jane Austen-like tale of an independent woman escaping the limitations of small-town life

Phoeba Crupp lives with her squabbling parents and younger sister Lilith on a small farm in rural Australia. Her father is an eccentric ex-accountant who moved his family from the city in order to establish a vineyard, a decision her mother bitterly - and loudly - resents. But Phoeba has loved it here since they day they arrived and she met Henrietta and Hadley Pearson, a brother and sister from a neighbouring farm who instantly became her closest friends. At their mother's urging, Lilith throws herself into trying to find a husband but Phoeba resists, until circumstances beyond her control push her towards the world of men and money. All the while the local community is shaken up by the arrival of pastoralists, suffragettes and squatters, carrying the threat and promise of change to their quiet corner of the country. As Phoeba wakes up to the realities of the adult world, she comes to realise the friendship of those near to her may count for more than she could ever have imagined. Told with Rosalie's Ham's trademark wit and wisdom, Summer At Mount Hope is an unputdownable story of a young woman finding a way to take control of her own destiny.