House of Blue Glass
Regular price
€27.50
17th19th century
A01=Alan Atkinson
Author_Alan Atkinson
Category=DNBH
Category=JBFH
Category=NHM
Colonial Australia
Elizabeth Farm
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Macarthur family
Penelope Lucas
Women
Product details
- ISBN 9781761170379
- Dimensions: 153 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 Mar 2026
- Publisher: NewSouth Publishing
- Publication City/Country: AU
- Product Form: Paperback
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In The House of Blue Glass, Alan Atkinson – author of the award-winning Elizabeth and John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm – explores the life of Penelope Lucas. While she is known as the Macarthur family governess, Atkinson reveals Penelope was primarily an accountant whose bookkeeping work made an important difference to the Macarthurs’ success.
Penelope Lucas came to Australia in 1804–1805, in her thirties, unmarried and looking forward to living on inherited income. While Elizabeth Macarthur was unsurprisingly upset when John arrived back from three years in England with a woman she had never heard of, Penelope went on to live with the Macarthurs for over thirty years and became close friends with Elizabeth. In this revelatory work, Atkinson brings together fifty years of scholarship as he explores the gender dynamics of the Macarthur household and the life of a single woman of means in Georgian England and early colonial Sydney.
Penelope Lucas came to Australia in 1804–1805, in her thirties, unmarried and looking forward to living on inherited income. While Elizabeth Macarthur was unsurprisingly upset when John arrived back from three years in England with a woman she had never heard of, Penelope went on to live with the Macarthurs for over thirty years and became close friends with Elizabeth. In this revelatory work, Atkinson brings together fifty years of scholarship as he explores the gender dynamics of the Macarthur household and the life of a single woman of means in Georgian England and early colonial Sydney.
Alan Atkinson has been writing Australian history since the 1970s, and he has a lifelong interest in family circumstances and relationships. He has written or edited a dozen books, including TheEuropeans in Australia, in three volumes, the third of which won the Victorian Prize for Literature, and Elizabeth and John, which won the NSW Premier's Award for Australian history. He is an honorary professor and Doctor of Letters with the University of Sydney.
