Catherine Blake 
Clarinda and Henry 

Clarinda and Henry is an historical fiction story of the Australian Father of Federation, Sir Henry Parkes, and his wife, Clarinda.

It is a story of their struggles in England in the early 1800s, their hazardous journey to Sydney on an emigrant ship and their lives as early settlers in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. It is a tale of success, but also of hardship and endurance.

While it tells the story of Henry Parkes’s political life, it has a large focus on his wife, Clarinda, a woman whose story was hidden behind her renowned husband’s, but who, like so many others of her era, helped shape the Australia we know today.