A Fortunate Life

In this edition for young readers, A.B. Facey recounts the many lives he lived and the hardships he faced during the early 20th century.

Bert Facey saw himself as an ordinary man, but his remarkable story reveals an extraordinary life. Facey was a battler, ever optimistic and hopeful despite the hardships of his life. A true classic of Australian literature, his simply written autobiography is an inspiration. This edition has been specially adapted for young readers.

Author Biography

A.B. Facey was born in 1894 and grew up on the Kalgoorlie goldfields and in the wheat-belt of Western Australia. His father died before he was two and he was deserted by his mother soon afterwards. He was looked after by his grandmother until he was eight years old, when he went out to work. His many jobs included droving, hammering spikes on the railway line from Merredin to Wickepin and boxing in a travelling troupe. He was in the Eleventh Battalion at the Gallipoli landing; after the war, he became a farmer under the Soldier Settlement Scheme but was forced off the land during the Depression. He joined the tramways and was active in the Tramways Union. A.B. Facey, who had no formal education, taught himself to read and write. He made the first notes on his life soon after World War I, and filled notebooks with his accounts of his experiences. Finally, on his children’s urging, he submitted the hand-written manuscript to the Press. He died in 1982, nine months after A Fortunate Life had been published to wide acclaim.