Patsy Durack was born a poor boy in Ireland, but migrated to Australia in the mid-nineteenth century to build up a pastoral empire in the outback.My life,' Patsy Durack told his children, 'began like a fairy tale with a boy who made a wish. I wished that I might some day ride a fine horse of my very own.'To Ride a Fine Horse is based on an Australian classic - Mary Durack's Kings in Grass Castles - adapted for young readers. It tells the story of Mary's grandfather, Patsy, a poor Irish boy who came to Australia at seventeen, made his fortune on the goldfields, and then founded a pastoral empire in the remote outback. Patsy's ambition had always been to 'ride a fine horse' but he would far exceed this dream, becoming one of the nation's top horse breeders, with his choice of the finest thoroughbred mounts in the land.This account of Patsy Durack's life is based on his letters, notebooks and documents, discovered by his granddaughter Mary in an old tin...

When Patrick Durack left Western Ireland for Australia in 1853, he was to found a pioneering dynasty and build a cattle empire across the great stretches of Australia. With a profound sense of family history, his grand-daughter, Mary Durack has reconstructed the Durack saga— a story of intrepid men and ground-breaking adventure. 'The best saga of pastoral Australia ever published... hard to describe without superlatives... in a hundred years the book will still be a classic.' Meanjin Dame Mary Durack Miller DBE OBE was born to the heritage of a pioneering family. Long recognised as one of Australia's great literary figures, she wrote 15 books, short stories, poetry, plays and film scripts. At the time of her death in 1994 she was working with producer Paul Barron on the screen adaptation of KINGS IN GRASS CASTLES.