18/10/2017
An excellent review of Alan Pierce’s “The Mine of Eternal Spring” due to be released soon:
“This is one of my favourite reads of recent years. A true holiday read, crisp,
warm, funny and atmospheric. Who would have thought a small gold mine in Eastern Victoria Australia could mean so much to a reader and at the very least be put in a position to feel and smell the land, its creeks and dry dusty ranges.
Our recent law graduate Roland, not a brave man, takes some very big personal steps as he does his darndest to live up to the dreams his late Father placed on his shoulders. Roland has inherited his Dad’s gold mine.
From the posh and prosperous suburbs of Melbourne with his lingering youthful love affair Roland heads towards the Strzelecki Range and into the under nourished weatherboard town of Dorville. No blue stone churches here!
This reader could not ask for better company as Roland makes his way to Benders Flat via the Crooked River Road, at every turn turning over in his mind “how do you work a gold mine?” “do I really own a gold mine”? Travelling with Roland’s insecurities is an entertaining place to be and then we meet the mine workers.
Misfits would be too kind a description of this band of miners. Some capable, some trustworthy, some mad, some with secrets lives led before The Mine Of Eternal Spring grabbed them by the short and curlies and filled their heads with dreams of gold.
George, Mirko, Hart and Megan, Jimmy Lee, Scurf and Werewolf dawdle around getting to know this new bloke Roland and what he stands for. With the mines back breaking work, something the misfits occasionally apply themselves to, it is not long before Roland is now Roly, a man who can now drop his shoulders and enjoy his new family.
There is a dependable honesty in this book from Alan B Pierce.
The lived experience of the hard slog of gold mining, the can’t-be-helped anxieties of old and new love affairs, the curious care and respect each worker has for the other, the ongoing belief that gold is not far away now is the glue that keeps the beer flowing once the sun has gone down. It is a joy in getting to know the folk at Benders Flat.
Please put this entertaining work of fiction on your shopping list. A beautifully written tale if ever there was one. Congratulations to Horizon Publishing for taking a punt.
Helen Matthews
Sydney Australia”
A must-read book.