Elizabeth and John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm

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**Winner, 2023 Ernest Scott Prize **

**Winner, 2023 NSW Premier's History Awards, Australian History Prize**

**Shortlisted, 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Awards, Australian History Prize**

A landmark and revealing joint biography of Elizabeth and John Macarthur, from one of Australia's most respected historians.

Arriving in 1790, Elizabeth and John Macarthur, both aged 23, were the first married couple to travel voluntarily from Europe to Australia, within three years of the initial invasion. John Macarthur soon became famous in New South Wales and beyond as a wool pioneer, a politician, and a builder of farms at Parramatta and Camden. For a long time, Elizabeth's life was regarded as contingent on John's and, more recently, John's on Elizabeth's.

In the multi-award-winning Elizabeth and John, acclaimed historian Alan Atkinson draws on his work on the Macarthur family over the last 50 years to explore the dynamics of a strong and sinewy marriage, and family life over two generations. With the truth of John and Elizabeth Macarthur's relationship much more complicated and more deeply human than other writers have suggested, Atkinson provides a finely drawn portrait of a powerful partnership.

Author Bio

Alan Atkinson is an Australian historian who first graduated in 1970. He has written a number of books, including The Europeans in Australia, in three volumes, the third of which won the Victorian Prize for Literature. He is an honorary professor and Doctor of Letters with The University of Sydney, and an honorary senior research fellow with The University of Western Australia.