The Hydrographer: The Clyde Steadman Story

This is a fascinating prequel to Rocking Horse Rider. The book provides the back-stories of the complex characters in the later novel. Clyde Steadman, the youngest son of Sir Henry and Edith, Lady Steadman, is educated at Winchester College and the University College London and graduates as an outstanding geologist before making a harrowing voyage to Sydney, Australia, on board RMS ‘Osterley’.

A career with the New South Wales Department of Mines is interrupted when he is headhunted by William Summer-Hayes to undertake a mammoth project at ‘Summerhaven Park’ in the Hunter Valley. William’s marriage to Stephanie Hollanday creates a partnership that will ‘do whatever it takes’ to found a dynasty and a corporate empire.

A seemingly endless drought and an economic depression in Australia are the background for a story of triumph, disaster, love, loss and great engineering works and art creations. Characters, who are forebears of the people in Rocking Horse Rider, come alive and explain how and why their descendants have benefited and managed their legacies.