Joan Makes History is the 3rd book by Australian author, Kate Grenville. Joan Redman(Radulescu) is a minor character from Grenville’s first novel, Lilian’s Story. From an early age, Joan has been determined to make her mark in history, and as we follow her life as she loved and was bored, betrayed and was forgiven, ran away and returned, those chapters of her life alternate with chapters that reflect or echo events in her life, and in which Grenville takes historical facts and inserts her characters into her own interpretation of events. We see James Cook’s first sighting of the Great South Land as observed by his wife; the landing of the First Fleet through the eyes of a female convict; an encounter of Bass and Flinders through the eyes of an aboriginal girl; the hardships of taming the land, seeking gold, treatment of the blacks, war and rebellion, modes of travel, bushrangers, the late 19th century depression, and Federation, all through the eyes of women present at those events. There is humour and heartache; some chapters are quite thought-provoking, others are written very much tongue-in-cheek. Irreverent and imaginative.
