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A Fortunate Life
Facey A.B.
,
Robert Juniper
(Illustrator)
4.22
8,528 ratings601 reviews
This is the extraordinary life of an ordinary man. It is the story of Albert Facey, who lived with simple honesty, compassion and courage. A parentless boy who started work at eight on the rough West Australian frontier, he struggled as an itinerant rural worker, survived the gore of Gallipoli, the loss of his farm in the Depression, the death of his son in World War II and that of his beloved wife after sixty devoted years - yet he felt that his life was fortunate.
Facey's life story, published when he was eighty-seven, has inspired many as a play, a television series, and an award-winning book that has sold over half a million copies.
331 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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6,307 people want to read
655 reviews
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May 13, 2021
A wonderful memoir of an eventful life lived!
Published in the year 1981, A Fortunate Life is the autobiography of Albert (`Bert`) Facey. I have read that this book is considered as an Australian classic, sold over a million copies, and it also features in many Australian schools as a text book!
This book is a thoughtful life story of a simple and ordinary person, who strongly believed that he lived a fortunate life.
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Suz
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May 23, 2019
I picked up this by recommendation of my daughter, and the owner of Dymocks when spending a Christmas voucher. Excellent choice!
I have to say this is a thoroughly thoughtfully told life story, of Albert Barnett Facey, an Australian born in 1894. The mere fact we are able to read the story of his remarkable life is testament to his hard work and tenacity; having taught himself to read and write. Albert had a hard life, being forced to work laboriously from age 9, working his little heart out for at times, little or no money, sometimes for people of little or no morals. He had remarkable bush skills. His stories are told with candour and humour; he tells us simply how it was. Self-deprecating and deathly honest, I imagine him to have been a very calming soul. From wrestling pigs (to be eaten for lunch) to working for the Employees’ Union of Workers, he was heavily committed to his family and country, landing at Gallipoli and surviving that terrible ordeal.
On his beloved surroundings and birds: They made the bush a beautiful place and helped one forget about loneliness... the birds and animals of the bush were all great company and very nice to see and hear. I loved the bush.
On the harsh responsibility thrust upon a thirteen-year-old boy: . So, with these instructions, they set off on their much needed holiday. I felt very proud of myself – my fourteenth birthday wasn’t until the next month but they had enough confidence in me to leave me to look after their possessions. I was a little scared at first, but soon settled to doing the daily chores. At night I used to roam around with my rifle and make sure everything was safe. I even put in an extra wire around the sheep gate in case the dingoes troubled them.
His thoughts on war: Some men who didn’t go got a rough time, but we never said anything to them because we thought they had some brains. I would have stayed behind if I had known.
This is what I mean about his quality of having ‘enough’ and being at peace: I have never felt like I was tied down to any one place or any one job. I have always felt that I could sell out or walk off at any time. It didn’t matter. I never ever worried about trying something different or having a go at something. I have always believed that if you want to do something you usually can.
On his beloved: She died at seven o’clock in my arms. We had been married for fifty-nine years, eleven months and twelve days. So on this day the loveliest and most beautiful woman left me.” . I adore this writing.
This is so beautiful: I have lived a good a very good life, it has been very rich and full. I have been very fortunate and I am thrilled by it when I look back.
I loved this softly spoken and honest story. No fanfare and fuss free for this busy age we live in. So glad my 16-year-old daughter tells me this is her favourite book.
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Sharon
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March 12, 2015
Firstly, I must say how much I enjoyed this book and what an extraordinary read it was. This story takes us on a journey of Albert Barnett Facey's life.
Albert's mother deserted him when he was only two years old. From that day forward Albert would have to grow up rather quickly. Having to start work at an early age was only the start for Albert, but he made the most of each day and tackled whatever life threw at him whether it be working hard on a farm or going off to war.
A beautifully written story that I have no hesitation in HIGHLY recommending.
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Simone
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June 8, 2012
This is one of those amazing books where you just can't find enough superlatives to convey exactly how much you enjoyed it and/or the impact it had on you. As a school student and as an adult you often hear tales of how difficult life was for previous generations, but it is only through reading a first hand account like this one, that you really "get" it.
Born in 1894 in Victoria, Albert Facey faced many and varied challenges right from the get go. Yet you get the sense that right from his earliest memories he was a determined and positive person who was always going to make his way through life due to continued perseverance and simple hard work. Abandoned by his mother at age 4 and raised by his grandmother, he was put out to work at an age where it would be considered child abuse/labour in these times. Unable to continue any kind of formal education he set about learning through the university of life and among many other things taught himself to read and write. Like many of his generation he was faced with the spectre of war and fought at Gallipoli. After coming home he learned how to be a farmer and once again, through an amazing work ethic and can-do attitude he made a success of that.
One of the magical things about this book is knowing that a generation of men/women like this will never exist again, simply because we have so much more now. Even those in dire hardship at least have the backstop of Government support, something that didn't exist then. Also there are many things you just can't do now without permits/permission/qualifications etc, but in these times anyone who was willing to have a go at something could do so.
Facey is an engaging and natural storyteller and you have to remind yourself as you read that is is a man who had no formal education. The language is simple but compelling and you really don't want it to end. Facey is an old-fashioned gentleman, something that comes through in the various tales within this wonderful book. It is a true historical account, a glimpse back into yesteryear more entertaining and rich than many other "official" historical documents.
Overall a brilliant, inspirational book that will help you understand what an amazing job the pioneers of this country did to help create the freedom and lifestyle we enjoy today.
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Brenda
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December 1, 2013
And that’s the way it was.
I would often go into the bush and watch the birds and think in some ways they were like me – they had to fend for themselves as soon as the mother bird thought that they were old enough.
Abandoned by his mother at the tender age of two, Albert Facey lived with some of his siblings and his grandparents in Victoria until 1899 when his Grandma decided to take them all to Perth in Western Australia where they would reunite with family. Bert’s granddad had recently died and they were struggling to make ends meet.
But Bert’s mother was unable, and unwilling to take her children back, so they moved into the bush with an Aunt and Uncle, making a life with the Government grant of land, building their own farm and clearing the bush. The life was a hard one, and as Bert moved through his, he suffered cruelty from some, compassion and kindness from others.
Bert was known for his honesty, never breaking a promise when it was made; his courage was such that he was admired and liked by many. As he grew, he was determined to learn to read and write, feeling embarrassed by his lack of knowledge. Bert suffered the horrors of WWI where he just survived Gallipoli, being honourably discharged through injury. When he met Evelyn, she became the love of his life – their long marriage produced seven children and twenty-eight grandchildren.
This extraordinary man was a very humble man, a man who believed he was very fortunate for the life he’d had; when his book won awards and prizes, he had no idea what all the fuss was about!
What a wonderful, inspirational book! So very Australian and one everyone should read at sometime in their lives. I’m very glad I have!
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Dillwynia Peter
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January 24, 2018
I finished this book with mixed feelings: the descriptions of the opening of the Western Australian Wheatbelt, and an Australia so foreign to us make the book wonderful; and yet, I felt it was too long in places and wondered when it would ever end. I am also very suspicious of the accurate dates and names of people recounted 70 years after the fact. Facey couldn’t write during the interesting aspects of his life, so there were no diaries to rely on.
Books on areas being developed, by those that actually did the work, are rare. Mostly, this is due to either the workers were illiterate, or was something their kind didn’t do: books were written by educated people in the city. This makes this book very valuable indeed. It’s not a dry, factual book, but one that is full of emotion. Facey had an awful 1st 15 years: the 1890s Depression meant his family split up, then his father died, and his mother left him at a very early age. When his grandmother became a widow, and with no such thing as welfare, she did the only smart thing and emigrated to Western Australia to be with the extended family. She was incredibly fortunate that her son-in-law took her & his nieces & nephews in on a virgin block of land.
The excitement of this book are these first 15 years: he is enslaved- his family mistakenly thinks he is employed as a companion, worked on various early settled blocks of land, odd jobbing in the city and country, working on building the wheatbelt railways, and even a stint as a drover from the eastern Pilbara. There are amazingly generous people, often complete strangers, and then you have those villains - those that exploit others, and those that are put into untenable places, such as Facey's mother. She certainly doesn't come out in a favourable light.
His personal accounts of active service in the Gallipoli conflict was one of the 1st to be published and are harrowing. It is hardly surprising that returned servicemen refused to discuss this with their families nor glorified war. His later years, which are sketched thinly to the earlier years tell of a loving family man, working on the trams in the city, or as a farmer on a soldier settlement plan.
He was a person who could not stop working, and it is really only on doctor’s advice, as an elderly man that he does finally stop. For him – work is everything and the concept of not working was too foreign to his ideals.
The book has a yarn/ storytelling feel about it. In his earlier years, he must have retold his stories to family and others, which probably explains the recalling of details so many decades after the fact. Facey never had a formal education. He managed to miss it as a small child – the 1890s Depression & necessary to work meant he wasn’t able to attend any school. The necessity of having to work at the age of 8 meant that he was illiterate until his early twenties when job opportunities were not obtainable till he could read & write. Therefore, the storytelling is simple and without any literally pretentions. At times, this can be uninspiring to the reader as phrases are repeated to describe feelings. The vocabulary is limited; which does give it an authentic flavour.
Some people get really hung up on the Gallipoli section of this book. There have been essays comparing the official record with Facey’s experience. They don’t match and this calls into question is he lying & how much else is false?? The war experience is not what makes this book – there are subsequent better war diaries from the battlefield. What is important is the personal level of the experience, and really, if the war period was dropped from the book, the tale would increase, not diminish. The really important aspect is the personal aspect of the development of the Wheatbelt region – that is what makes this book great.
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Joss
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July 7, 2019
An Australian classic that somehow I had not read before. I thought it would probably be a little boring, but in fact I found it a wonderful read. Even more so because I once lived in the Great Southern District of Western Australia, where Albert’s childhood was spent. Not that he had much childhood. It reminded me of how our early settlers struggled to survive. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about Australian Social History.
I gave this book 5 Stars.
2019
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Marianne
3,358 reviews · 134 followers
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January 26, 2013
A Fortunate Life is the only book written by Australian author, Albert Bernard Facey. The author recounts the events of his life from the late 19th century through to 1976. There are no literary devices employed: this is simple narration, the honest telling of a tale by a marvellous storyteller. What makes it such a great read is that it contains so many details of everyday life in an era devoid of the convenience of electronics, modern day appliances and fast, convenient travel and communication. How much things cost and how they were done will be a revelation to present day readers. Facey relates, often in a matter-of-fact manner, the events of a childhood filled with hardship and lacking parental love, yet he considers his life fortunate. Facey experienced much is his eighty-eight years: building a humpy, trapping possums, slaughtering animals, harvesting grain, killing dingoes, kangaroos and emus for the bounty, a massive cattle drive, being lost in the outback, being stuck down a well, laying railway tracks, prize-fighting, conducting and driving trams and buses, farming sheep, cattle, poultry and pigs, growing wheat, Gallipoli and the Depression. He lost his father, sister, brothers, mother, grandmother, his son and his wife. And yet, he also encountered many kind strangers and neighbours who were unstinting in their help. This edition contains maps and illustrations and an afterword by Jan Carter. Interesting and inspirational.
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Kris
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February 12, 2009
While in the second hand store looking for books to read during my month in Costa Rica I came across the memoir, A Fortunate Life. My idea was to read books while traveling around CR and then leave them in whatever city I finished them thus making more room available in my suitcase to bring home souvineers. After reading this book, no, reading is the wrong word ....um...living ...experiencing ...empathizing ...something like that, I have determined my life will have one less souvineer so that I might bring back home this classic book for my personal library. An Aussie friend down here told me it's a very famous book in Australia (He's an english teacher) and recommended to everyone else at our lunch table. I too recommend this jump into the world of a small boy in the wilds of Australia during the early part of the 20th century.
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Erik Graff
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September 28, 2013
This book was given me by a woman of Italian ancestry who was raised in Australia. In handing it over she noted that it was a text familiar to most Australisns. Having the impression that it was fictional I wasn't sure I'd read it. Given our friendship, however, I resolved to give it a try.
As it happens this is an autobiography of one Albert B. Facey, born just before the turn of one century and dead shortly before the beginning of the next. The focus of the work is on the first quarter of the twentieth century and most of that in Western Australia wheat-belt region. Being primarily self-educated, he is an author without pretensions, the story of his life being told straight and clear.
And a hard life it was! His father having died, his mother abandoned him and most of his siblings in early childhood, leaving them in the care of a widowed grandmother who took them to what was then a rather wild and underpopulated area in western Australia. Disappointment followed disappointment, leaving Facey, beginning at the age of eight, to substantially fend for himself as a hired hand. Often unpaid and sometimes abused, he went from job to job, working on farms, driving cattle, boxing etc. until enlisting in the Australian army during the first war. Serving in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, he returned home, substantially disabled.
This was the hardest part of his life and fills most of the memoir. The rest, over sixty years, was better, not because he became successful, but because he met and happily married a woman with whom he raised a family. As his unhappy early life was characterized by loneliness and abandonment, his adult life was 'fortunate', despite the Depression, despite his disabilities, because of others: because of her, because of their children, because of his comrades in his union and because of the voters in his constituencies.
I've read many, many autobiographies, most by famous people, most quite self-conscious, many defensive. Other than the memoirs, most of them oral, most of them much shorter, of ordinary American workers, this is one of the best, because most honest and substantial, autobiographies I've ever encountered. I found it quite moving.
A final note. There is one man I've personally known in my life whose own story resembled Facey's. That was Paul Berquist, my former wife's maternal grandfather. Born in Sweden to coppersmiths, a veteran of the Swedish airforce (back in biplane days), an immigrant to the USA, he rose to become an independent tool and die maker in Chicago while raising a family and participating in virtually every fraternal organization I'd ever heard of. Like Facey, Paul was the kind of man who could live off the land, build his own house and fix virtually anything. Like Facey and unlike myself, I'd say much of his life was hard, but very well lived--lived until his ninety-sixth year, a model to all of us fortunate enough to have known him.
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