Belinda Murrell: Bringing Australian History To Life | Page 29

CLASS ACTIVITIES

CLASS ACTIVITIES FOR

THE RIVER CHARM
FACTION

This novel is closely based on a writer’s life and is an example
of ‘faction’, which is the deliberate blending of fact and fiction
in a work of the imagination. In it, the novelist employs the
freedom of the imagination, but is also constrained by the need
to be true to the original story.

Questions and Activities

1. Compare Belinda’s
writing style with her
great-great-great-greatgrandmother Charlotte’s
writing in A Mother’s
Offering to Her Children
(1841) – the stories in
which are structured as a
dialogue between a mother
and her children, like a
playscript. For example, you
might discuss the fact that
Charlotte’s stories, despite
her obvious sympathy for
the plight of Aboriginal
peop