Amie Livingstone Stirling's Memories Of An Australian Childhood has captured the imagination of readers for more than 25 years, since its original publication in 1980.

Writing with the feeling of a novelist, Amie tells of her childhood in the isolated High Country Victorian town of Omeo in the 1880s and 90s. She writes about her beloved father, James Stirling, the famous coal-mining pioneer and geologist, and her mother, Elizabeth, a botanist and skilful artist. Her upbringing nurtured a deep love for nature, rational thinking and, above all, equality of the sexes.

At a time when often a woman's place was in the home, Amie broke with convention, travelled the world and, as young 20-something, settled in the artistic colonies of Montmartre and Montparnasse in Paris, mingling with some of the most famous artists of the time, such as the composer Saint-Saëns and the famous tragedienne, Sarah Bernhardt.

Forever a 'bush kid' at heart, it didn't take long for the young Amie to charm her new Parisian friends with her knowledge and love of music and literature, free thought and theosophy.

A few year ago, Amie's grand-daughter, Linda Harrison, updated her grandmother's story with new material from her later years. But Amie originally put her story down on paper shortly before her death in 1945, at the request of her son, as Linda Harrison explains to Rhiannon Brown.