This book offers a selection of over 80 ‘colourful yarns and true tales from life on the land’ arranged under ten thematic headings, including ‘Plagues and Perishes’, ‘Pastimes and Pleasures’ and ‘Hard Yakka’. Seal draws effectively on the rich Australian bush traditions of versification and balladeering, while also presenting illuminating extracts from a wide variety of primary and secondary sources. He takes us back to a time when ‘the bush’ was central to popular notions of Australian identity, with the likes of Henry Lawson and ‘Banjo’ Paterson serving to both celebrate and mythologise it. Some of the stories will be very familiar to those Australians over a certain age, but younger readers are sure to find both amusement and enlightenment within this cleverly constructed compendium of classic and lesser-known bush tales, both tall and true.