The Colt from Old Regret (Dianne Wolfer, illus Erica Wagner, NLA)

Dianne Wolfer (Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady) decentres the human perspective of Banjo Paterson’s ‘The Man from Snowy River’ in The Colt from Old Regret, recounting the escaped colt’s experience in vivid sensory prose poetry that speaks to Paterson’s original work as an improvised jazz bridge speaks to a central melody. Some of Wolfer’s phrases directly incorporate or echo Paterson’s (‘the ranges ring with snapping whips’), while others offer a fresh gaze on the dramatic muster across the mountain slopes. Short, rich sentences distil the original poem’s imagery into an intense, powerful mood supported by Erica Wagner’s mixed media collage. Together, text and illustrations evoke the visceral exhilaration of the sweaty, dusty, adrenaline-fueled alpine escapade. Although the condensed narrative stands alone for readers unfamiliar with Paterson, the book is positioned as an educational resource that could accompany study of the poem at a primary or secondary level. The end matter includes ‘The Man from Snowy River’ in full, as well as biographical detail about Paterson and contextual information about wild brumbies and bush poetry. Wagner also illustrates the end matter, with spreads favouring wider, sparser views of the station, mountains and stockmen while the main body features densely textured landscapes and horses’ faces; the contrast cleverly highlights the book’s overall enterprise of ‘zooming in’ on aspects of the original poem.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a freelance editor and writer, and a bookseller at the Hobart Bookshop. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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