Marie Bjelke Petersen

In Marie's books, on the other hand, Australians found their country described as a civilised place, beautiful and uplifting, where crude characters like the Bleggs and the osmiridium miners are balances by musicians and charming guest-house owners, and where life goes on in town as well as country. As Australia's sense of identity grew, such a portrait of its people and landscape would have assisted to broaden the general outlook, a necessary change as the nation developed from small, scattered settlements to which the outback myth gave a unity, into the much more complex society of the later twentieth century.

Alison Alexander A Mortal Flame: Marie Bjelke Petersen, Australian Romance Writer 1874-1969 Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 1994, p. 205

Tasmania, with its wild, majestic scenery, is a place of catharsis, where fugitives from the decadent world of Europe can find peace, love, wonder, truth, God and the real meaning of life.

Alison Alexander (1949 - ) A Mortal Flame: Marie Bjelke Petersen, Australian Romance Writer 1874-1969 Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 1994

Now she sat by the window of the hurrying train watching for the Naples of the Southern Hemisphere. The express had just thundered over the bridge stretching across the wide expanse of the Derwent River -- the river which like some royal procession makes its way slowly, majestically, towards the captial city. Every inch of its triumphant journey is lined with crowed of adoring hills and worshipful mountains which robe themselves in garments of gorgeous blues, lilac, and rose….
So this was Hobart! This city, cradled in loveliness, watched over by mountains, saluted by the river, kissed by sunbeams, blest by Heaven, and purged to crystal clarity by the snow and ice of the Antarctic!

Alison Alexander (1949 - ) A Mortal Flame: Marie Bjelke Petersen, Australian Romance Writer 1874-1969 Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 1994, p. 124