This is an oral history as well as a biography. Its subject is the experience of the Anglo-Australian Burrage family on Aboriginal reserves between 1917 and 1940. There are not many histories of Aboriginal reserves that have something good to say of them, but the Burrage children - Winifred, Alan and Elsie, recall the world of their childhood as a happy one. They recount how their Anglo-Australian parents toiled on reserves with genuine caring and an unsentimental sense of duty. The vivid recollections of the Burrages form the centrepiece of the book. In an introductory essay, Bain Attwood sketches the background to the reserves, and discusses the different histories we have of relations between Europeans and Aborigines in Australia. In the final section, he scrutinizes the form of oral history and contemplates the nature of historical knowledge. The result is a passionate representation of the virtues of history.