Sally Warriner's rollicking memoir is a no-holds barred celebration of life on outback cattle stations.
In the 1970s, in her early 20s, Sally returned from a four-year backpacking adventure overseas and hitchhiked to Australia's far north.
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Instead of moving back to Canberra as planned, she stayed.
After marrying a cattle station manager, she lived and worked with him on various stations until she was 50, ingraining herself into the lives of the characters who inhabited these isolated places.
With wit and sass, Sally tells a very Australian story of show she really was so much more than just a station manager's wife - despite what some of the blokes thought!
She was a nurse, dealing with local accidents, assisting the Royal Flying Doctor Service and maknig emergency 400km round trips with sick children; a mother bringing up several children (not all her own); a travel agent; social secretary; host and organiser (including of late media magnate Kerry Packer's New Years Eve parties).
Sally's story is one of adventure, resilience, the unexpected journeys we need to go on to find ourselves, and having the courage to do something for yourself.
Not Just the Wife of the General Manager, by Sally Warriner (Hardie Grant) RRP $32.99.
