The Persian Nightingale

Madelina Forbes Mitchell’s memoir is an interesting read that gives an insight into her extraordinary life and the trials endured upon moving to Australia when it was in its infancy. Thinking this opportunity would lead to prosperity, Madelina and husband Fredrick arrived on land in Adelaide with two infant children on the 14th October 1838. Madelina has her fifteenth child Mordaunt Hankey Mitchell in White Hill, Bendigo,Victoria and finds work as an opera singer. Told via a series of vignettes, the reader is given a snapshot of time through the eyes of someone who was a little bit further up the aristocratic ladder than most of whom were sent to the Colony.
The language used is early to the late 1800’s.