These is My Words

Sarah Agnes Prine begins her diary in 1881 when her father decides to move the whole family - and their horse ranch - from Arizona Territory to Texas, where life will be easier. Sarah, at seventeen, is a tomboy: though she longs to be educated, gracious and beautiful like other women. But when the family sets out on the wagon trail and disasters strike in rapid succession, Sarah turns out to be the only thing that keeps them from certain death.Sarah stays brave, strong and determined through everything that befalls her. But she longs to be loved, like any other woman, and she is to meet her destiny in Captain Jack Elliot.

A remarkable novel . . . vividly alive and gripping . . . Innocent, tough, spirited, [Sarah] is utterly admirable and convincing, Fragmented and disjointed in its early chapters, with poor spelling and grammar, Sarah's journal gradually gains in clarity and eloquence as she matures. While this device may frustrate some readers at first, Taylor's deft progression produces the intended reward: she not only tells of her heroine's growth, but she shows it through Sarah's writing and insights. The result is a compelling portrait of an enduring love, the rough old West and a memorable pioneer, A record of a spectacularly combustible love affair . . . a charming and promising first novel, A convivial period tale of adventure, love and marriage, featuring a spunky gun-toting heroine and the brave-hearted soldier she comes to love . . . A lushly satisfying romance, period-authentic, with true-grit pioneering, Incredibly vivid and real and almost as though everything had been found, complete in a box somewhere. How clever writers are to go back into the past and to recreate a time so accurately. And I liked the character of the girl, because she was so matter of fact about all the traumas of her adventures, but I suppose one had to be, faced with Indians and all the other problems

Nancy Turner was doing a mature degree at university when she took a sabbatical to write this, her first novel. It is based on the life of her great-grandmother, who single-handedly ran one of the largest ranches in Arizona..