Alan Marshall is one of our national treasures, and if he isn’t he should be. He’s one author everyone should read as he’s written so much about Australian life. Born in 1902 in country Victoria he contracted polio at the age of six. He was put through the wringer with treatment and ended up on crutches, something that didn’t seem to hold him back much. You can read more about him in his fictionalised account of his life I Can Jump Puddles, it’s an awesome book and some day I’ll read the two sequels.

His life was an inspiration and he seems to have the knack of writing about people the way they were not the way we think they should be written. This book illustrates that perfectly. It’s a series of short stories and each one shows us Australians as they were in that time.

I loved these stories. The first one is called Tell Us About the Turkey, Jo and is about a young boy and his older brother. They’re talking to the narrator and telling him about the young boys adventures, making every tiny event seem bigger and more important as happens with young children.

The title story, How’s Andy Going? is about the author as a young boy after he’s been put on crutches. He still wants to race and he has a young friend who also wants to race so they create a race specially for them and crawl 100 yards. Andy is the younger brother of the friend and ends up joining in. I love how they constantly ask ‘How’s Andy going?’ all through the race despite having tried to leave him at home. I shouldn’t spoil the story and tell you he won, pipped at the post. You should still read the story as it’s all in the telling and not in the condensing.

I’m giving you a couple of links to Booktopia for buying. I Can Jump Puddles is a really important fictionalised autobiography as it tells us what it was like to get polio and how he coped with it. And here’s the Complete Stories of Alan Marshall, not sure how complete it is but at 512 pages it should have a decent number. Very enjoyable writing.