In 1991, Sara Henderson was named Australia's Businesswoman of the Year, for her efforts to turn an outback station, Bullo River, into a going concern. The place sounds like a millstone, frankly - Henderson and her daughters work their guts out, for many years with only the most basic of amenities, staggering under enormous debt. Far more debt, really, than they knew, because when Henderson's husband Charles (a war hero who spent most of his time having affairs and behaving like an autocrat) died, it was discovered that his spendthrift ways had run up enormous sums of money that needed to be repaid, further debts that none of them had ever known about.

With a choice to sell the station her family had laboured over for decades - and to perhaps break even, walking away with nothing - or to turn the place around, Henderson plumped for the latter. It comes across as a backbreaking struggle and I think she is underselling just how hard it was, but you have to admire her gumption. I would have liked to see more of the business side of things in the book, as there are times this aspect of it can be pretty light, but all in all it's an interesting and sympathetic read.