Reminiscences of the Gold Fields by Jim ‘the Blacksmith’ Harrison

Thanks to afr.com

Title: Reminiscences of the Gold Fields 

Author: Jim ‘the Blacksmith’ Harrison 

Publisher: Not known 

Source book: The Castlemaine Murders by Kerry Greenwood 

Kerry Greenwood is an author who enjoys giving her characters fictional books to read. Or write. People who write about dragons or magic frequently invent fictional books. Authors of detective stories, not so much, although Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers both wrote about fictional authors (mostly of detective stories).

In The Castlemaine Murders, Kerry Greenwood sends her heroine Phryne Fisher to Castlemaine with the task of searching for a man who disappeared during the Gold Rush of the 1850s. 

Phryne is introduced to Mr Harrison, a dreadful old bore, but his father was in the gold fields before he took up blacksmithing, and he is prepared to talk about it all night long. Mr Harrison brings his father’s book with him; Reminiscences of the Gold Fields. The book was printed locally, and is bound in blue cardboard. Phryne reads the book while Harrison scoffs his dinner. It’s not exactly high literature, beginning “You can’t imagine what those times were like. They were the roaring days. They were the days when men were men.”

However, from the book we learn that Mr Harrison senior had known Phryne’s missing man, and his best friend, Chumley. Phryne, of course, solves her case, and this little book might have supplied a useful clue.

Also mentioned in The Castlemaine Murders is Lady Joan’s Secret which doesn’t appear to be a real book. Phryne’s adopted daughter, Ruth, has read it. She is much addicted to romantic novels (and cookery books).

Thanks to Old Treasury Building.org.au