The shearers' eleven / HM Moore

This is a fun read! Aimed mainly at a male audience, The Shearers' Eleven captures the noise, sweat and organised chaos of the shearing board at full throttle. Set in South Australia in the early 1950s, it's an authentic exploration of male friendship, near-outback living and working, and good old fashioned back-yard cricket. With its eclectic mix of personalities, this novel will appeal to those with a love of nostalgia, and those who appreciate the larrikin humour we attribute to the Australian character .But those men were there to shear sheep and The Shearers' Eleven lets the reader experience the flap of the fan belt and the motor's loud put put put as the shearers bend double to shear the last leg or shove their shell-shocked victims through their chutes. The fairer sex is never far from the shearers' minds, but theirs is a culture of yarn-telling and the story is interwoven with humorous and often far-fetched anecdotes, some bemoaning their lack of ease around women. Masculinity is balanced by social insight and a poignancy that should appeal to female readers, though some may find attitudes of the 50s confronting. Brimming with satire and punchy dialogue, this is Aussie larrikinism at its best!