But how best can a lonely man achieve it? A slow, careful campaign that shows what a great father he’d be? Or give in to instinct and be a lover, as the birds do? In an Australian bush town in the 1950s, the wooing of a woman is more complex than the instinctive courtship of birds, but if it succeeds, the down-to-earth relationship that emerges is solid and strong, a mateship for life. While’ bird’ can mean both the winged variety and in slang, a sexually attractive woman, ‘mateship’ draws on dual meanings too: mating – finding a mate, courtship rituals and mating for life and also the Australian notion of mateship – meaning a special kind of friendship: laconic, but loyal: an indivisible, enduring bond between equals. Mateship with Birds is a clever title for this book.
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