I am waiting for the proof copy of my new book, A Fascination of Dines to arrive. It is a family history, particularly of one generation, of the Dines family whose roots are in Hertfordshire but at least five members emigrated to Australia in the mid 19th Century, only one of them at His Majesty’s insistence
The book focuses on three generations who collectively have fascinated me since I first began researching my family history in 1974. The book includes:
- a convicted horse thief,
- a stolen identity,
- an acquittal on manslaughter,
- a murder by poachers,
- the invention of equipment useful in the study of meteorology,
- some sturdy gamekeepers, farmers, grocers, butchers, vets and a lasting love of the Turf.
Indeed one wealthy owner, who bred the winner of the 1866 Melbourne Gold Cup, took the outcome of a wager all the way to the Privy Council and as a consequence had to sell his 25 room mansion and most of his stable of racehorses and head off up to a 64,000 acre station on the borders of NSW and Queensland.
Once the proof has been approved then I will be able to post details of where you can obtain it. Meanwhile I hope to share my research methods and dilemmas, some extras that I wasn’t able to put in the book, and some extra background to their lives.
