Everybody Jam
Everybody Jam is Danny Dawson’s story. He’s a 13 year old boy who lives on an outback cattle station in the middle of nowhere, in Australia’s Northern Territory. He’s having a tough time – his older brother Jonny has recently died in an awful accident and his older sister Sissy is pregnant and won’t say who the father is. Everyone is doing their best to pretend everything is OK – even though it isn’t.
Then the Pommie (that’s what the Brits are known as over there) arrives – she’s hired as a housegirl to help out around the station, with the cooking, cleaning and looking after the chooks (or hens as us Pommie’s might say). Danny hates her at first, because she’s useless. But when a drought threatens to wipe out the Dawsons’ cattle herd, everyone has to pull together for them to survive.
You can get a copy of Everybody Jam from Amazon UK, Waterstones or from Amazon.com
So you know what Danny’s talking about when you read the book, here are a few of his favourite words and what they mean:
Dunny = toilet
Bluey = an argument
Crook = to feel unwell
Chooks = hens
Pommie = a British person
Poddie = hand-reared calf
Grog = beer or other alcohol
A killer = a cow which is shot and butchered on the station
Gins = the word Danny and his family use to refer to the Aborigines
If there are any other ‘Australian’ words used in the book which you don’t understand – get in touch, I’m happy to answer any questions.
The setting for the story was inspired by my time spent working on a cattle station in Australia in 2002. Have a look in 'My Travels' to see some photos.
You can also see the shed where I wrote the first draft of Everybody Jam here.
Everybody Jam is also available in German and Dutch. It will soon be available in Swedish too.