page_title: Frank Atha Westbury
section_title: Themes and influences in his work
hierarchical_section_title: Frank Atha Westbury / Themes and influences in his work
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover of First Edition of "Australian Fairy Tales" by Atha Westbury, Ward Locke &amp; Co. London 1897.
context_page_description: Frank Atha Westbury, who wrote under the pen names of "Atha" and "Atha Westbury", was a popular and prolific author of mystery adventure novels, children's stories and poetry in late 19th century Australia and New Zealand. Most of his fiction was serialised in newspapers and journals between 1879 and 1905. His two major works were: The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook, A Romance of Maoriland and Australian Fairy Tales, which won him a place as one of the better-known writers for children in Victorian-era Australia. Many of his novels were adventure romances set in New Zealand at the time of the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s, which the author experienced as a soldier in the British Army.
context_section_description: Westbury's poetry was Romantic in style while his fiction writing appears to have drawn inspiration from popular 19th-century romances as well as mystery adventure novels, particularly those of Alexandre Dumas. His best known book, The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook, is the tale of a murderer who assumes the identity of a wealthy New Zealander in order to steal his estate and escape justice. Set in New Zealand, Venice and London, it has much intrigue and double dealing and features a sinister French "mesmerist" (hypnotist) named Gaston de Roal. The novel was well received at its time of publication. A review in the Adelaide Advertiser of January 1897 stated: "The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook is...an admirable story of adventure of the fin de siècle kind. There is villainy enough to supply more than a dozen sensational novels. Mr Westbury handles his perhaps too abundant material with the deftness of an old hand and is equally at home when the sensation of the moment is an exhibition of hypnotism, a description of the New Zealand Wars or an earthquake".
  Much of Westbury's writing explores the quest for justice and is often in sympathy with the indigenous New Zealanders, the Maori. As the Adelaide reviewer noted: "Mr Westbury has evidently a liking for the natives... and pictures them as both physically and mentally, a magnificent race... He shows that in the contrast between barbarism and civilisation the advantages are not all on the one side. Te Coro, the Maori girl, is a more than presentable heroine and the author proves by more than one example a distinct gift of characterisation".
  He also wrote extensively for children. Australian Elves, published by the Pictorial Australian in 1885 and Australian Fairy Tales (Ward Lock & Co London, 1897) were among the first to utilise the Australian landscape as the setting for fairy stories, a device that initially received mixed reactions from critics. As one reviewer in the Sydney Morning Herald remarked wryly in 1897: "One feels puzzled to meet brownie, kobold, gnome, dwarf and prince under our skies. Perhaps their small Highnesses, whose age is under double figures, may approve".  Most of his fairy tales were about young men who started out in poverty but found riches through the intervention of a princess or magical being.
  In the 1890s, novels, short stories and poems by Atha Westbury were to be found serialised in city and regional newspapers as well as literary journals across Australia and New Zealand and as far away as England. A large number of these works were set in New Zealand and featured themes of mystery, adventure, war, crime and justice, the occult, mesmerism and romance. Another favourite theme was that of the prodigal son: the struggle of a disgraced scion of a well-to-do family to redeem himself in society and his father's eyes. Both The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook and Australian Fairy Tales were republished in 2009 and 2010.
caption: Australian Fairy Tales, 1897
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