Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

The Man on the Mantelpiece: A memoir by Marion May Campbell

by
December 2018, no. 407

The Man on the Mantelpiece: A memoir by Marion May Campbell

UWA Publishing, $24.99 pb, 232 pp, 9781760800031

The Man on the Mantelpiece: A memoir by Marion May Campbell

by
December 2018, no. 407

In 1952, Marion May Campbell’s father was killed in an apocalyptic accident when his World War II RAAF Dakota was knocked out of control by contact with a waterspout and was ‘unable to effect recovery’. There were no survivors and little wreckage. The outmoded Dakota was on loan to the CSIRO to conduct experiments in artificial rainmaking that required flying into turbulent cumulonimbus clouds. ‘Rainmaking is the work of the Devil,’ his daughter heard. Had the radio physicists on those flights discovered how to make it rain over drought-stricken areas of Australia, they would have been hailed as heroes. As it was, his grieving widow received a nasty anonymous letter intimating that the crew got what they deserved for ‘interfering with nature’.

Francesca Sasnaitis reviews 'The Man on the Mantelpiece: A memoir' by Marion May Campbell

The Man on the Mantelpiece: A memoir

by Marion May Campbell

UWA Publishing, $24.99 pb, 232 pp, 9781760800031

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.