My thanks, as always and forever, to my husband, Bruce Venables, for his support, encouragement, and downright inspiration.

Thanks, too, to the pals and workmates: my agent, James Laurie; my publisher, Jane Palfreyman; my editor, Kim Swivel; Peta Levett and all at Random House Australia; Colin Julin; and my ever-supportive friends, Susan Mackie, Sue Greaves and Robyn Gurney.

For assistance in the research of this book, my sincerest thanks to Pauline Saxon, Robert Duncan, Denise Chapman of Epilepsy Australia, Warren Brown and Don Palfreyman.

I am indebted to all those who were so friendly and helpful during my first research trip to the Monaro and Snowy Mountains region, and would like particularly to thank local historian Frank Rodwell, and Viv Straw, the General Manager of the Snowy River Shire Council. Thanks also to Barry Aitchison and the pals to whom he introduced me: Keven Burke, Charlie Roberson, Fred Fletcher, Ellis Aitchison and Phil Zylstra of NPWS. And thanks to Leigh Stewart of Stewart’s Gallery in Adaminaby and to Annette McGufficke of NPWS.

Among my many research sources, I would like to recognise the following:

Berlin, Frederic V. Grünfeld, Time-Life International, 1977.

Homes on the Range, Frank Rodwell, 1999.

Cooma, a Decade of Change, Alison Howell, Cooma Monaro Historical Society, 1996.

The Snowy, Siobhan McHugh, William Heinemann Australia, 1989.

Snowy Saga, Oswald Ziegler Publications for Snowy River Shire Council, 1960.

Pseudo-epileptic Seizures, Neil Buchanan and Jeffrey Snars, MacLennan & Petty Pty Ltd, 1995.

The photographs of George Miso, Hollywood Studio, Cooma.

‘The 1948 Massacre at Deir Yassin Revisited’, Matthew Hogan, Historian, Winter 2001.

Justice Not Vengeance, Simon Wiesenthal, Grove Atlantic, 1990.

The Plot Against the Peace, Michael Sayers and Albert E. Kahn, Dial Press, 1945.