The Naturalist’s Daughter – Tea Cooper (Audiobook Narrator -Corrine Davies)

The Naturalists Daughter is part literary fiction, all historical fiction, part mystery and part thriller.

As a budding fan of Tea Cooper, I was thrilled to listen to my second audiobook of one of her works. The Naturalist’s Daughter takes place in a dual timeline. In 1808, Rose Winton, lives in the town of Agnes Banks in New South Wales, Australia, with her “Mam,” a healer/herbalist * and her ‘Pa’ Charles Winton. Charles has spent many years observing, drawing and writing up his research on what we all know as the duck billed platypus. He has been able to dissect one that died. But mostly, he watches and learns and also considers input from their indigenous friends who have observed these creatures far longer. Charles has a sponsor in England, Sir Joseph Banks, to whom he sends updates on the platypus each year, Rose is her Pa’s sidekick, becoming a talented artist as she, too sketches the natural world and their platypus subjects. She also produces drawings for her father and assists him in his work in general, a rare situation for a female child of her era.

Rose’s mother is a moody, sad woman who Rose understands has suffered losses. She will not talk about her life in England. She is highly regarded for her healing skills, using herbs she grows. Unexpectedly, when Rose is a young woman, Pa is invited to speak in England at the Royal Society. He’s deeply concerned about telling Mam, who will be devastated he will be gone so long or at all, but soon after he shares this information with Rose, he becomes too ill to travel. Rose heads off in his stead, carrying her sketchbook and a platypus pelt. She tumbles into a situation that is partly devastating, partly a reminder of where women fit in her world, seriously dangerous as she learns too much and ultimately resolved in a mixed fashion.

In 1908, Tamsin, a woman fortunate enough to land a job in a library in Sydney, New South Wales, with responsibility to locate original papers of various people, including the early Australian naturalist, Charles Winton is working to acquire original documents for an exhibition and the library’s archives. Winton’s many sketchbooks were destroyed in a fire. Tamsin is trying to secure his letters to Sir Joseph. Almost simultaneous with their arrival, Tamsin’s supervisor tells her a sketchbook with anatomical drawings of platypi is to be donated to the library and … it appears to be Winton’s work. Tamsin is to pick it up in person in a town a train ride away and to transport it back to Sydney if it seems to be authentic. She finds the donor has died and things are … complicated. Tamsin is thrown into a mystery, significant research and an unexpected challenger as a result.

Tea Cooper spins a complex, but totally compelling/engaging story of two women, Rose and Tamsin, who are dealing with the status of women in their time, their roots and their need to follow their own interests and passions in a time when that was not a choice for women. Several characters have experienced serious trauma, with varying impact on their growth and lives. There are some points where one must suspend disbelief more than I usually will but for this book, I did it! I highly recommend The Naturalist’s Daughter and thoroughly enjoyed the narrator for this audio edition, Corinne Davies.