Mr. Allbones' Ferrets

by Fiona Farrell

A young man out poaching. A beautiful maiden in a mysterious house. A perilous voyage to distant islands. All the ingredients of a highly coloured Victiorian romance are played out in the context of the great colonial experiment.
Walter Allbones’ really existed. So did his ferrets. From these facts, Fiona Farrell has spun a delicate, satirical fantasy about human folly and the perils attendant on disturbing the subtly balance of nature.

(From Publisher).

Born in Oamaru, Fiona Farrell was educated at Otago and Toronto where she graduated in drama. She has published two collections of poetry, two collections of short stories and four novels, three of which have been short listed for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. The skinny Louie Book won the award in 1992, while The Hopeful Traveller (2001) and the popular Book Book (2004) were also nominated for the international IMPAC Dublin Award. Her poetry and short stories have been widely anthologised. She has received the Bruce mason Award for Playwrights, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship in Menton, and in 2006 spent six months in Donoughmore, Ireland, as one of the inaugural recipients of the Rathcoola Residency for New Zealand and Australian writers and artists. Mr Allbones’ Ferrets was completed while she was in Ireland.

A very popular novel that has captured the imagination of our readers.

A delicate satirical romance about how humans disturb the balance of nature at their peril.