The Touch by Colleen McCulloch (Best selling author of The Thorn Birds).

Hard back, excellent condition.

"Alexandra Kinross is remember in his native Scotland only as a shiftless boilermaker's apprentice and a godless rebel. But, when he writes from Australia to summon his bride, his Scottish relatives realise that he has made a fortune on the goldfields and is a man to be reckoned with.

Arriving in Sydneyh after a difficult voyage, sixteen year old Elizabeth Drummond meets her husband to be and discovers that the frightens and repels her. Offered no choice, she marries him and is whisked at once across wild, uninhabited countryside to Alexander's own town, named Kinross, after himself. In the crags above it lies the worlds richest gold mine.

Isolated in Alexander's great house, and with no company save Chinese servants, Elizabeth finds that the intimacies of marriage do not prompt her husband to enlighten her about his past life - or his present one. She has no idea that he still has a mistress, the sensuous, touch, outspoken Ruby Costevan.

Capture by their very different natures, Alexander resolves to have both Elizabeth and Ruby - why should he not? He has the fabled "Midas Touch" a combination of curiosity, boldness and intelligence that he applies to every situation and which only fails him when it comes to these two women. For while Ruby loves Alexander desperately, Elizabeth does not.

The Touch spans the latter half of the 19thC on the NSW goldfields, a place where staggering fortunes were made. The story of Alexander and his women occures amide the birth pans of a nation, at a time when power belonged to men, and women were walled in by terrible obstacles. But power must be paid for, and obstacles can be shattered. The epic talents of McCulloch have never been better displayed than in The Touch."

PICK UPS can be in Wgtn Hospital, Wgtn CBD, or Karori.