Richardson has achieved a perfect synthesis of fairy story, allegory and children’s picture book, overlain with a strong emotional narrative that every mature adult will recognise. 720 ABC Perth
Winner of the 2008 Australian Young Adult Book award The host’s Child is an enchanting fable of haunting resonance about the worth of life, the quality of happiness and the power of love.
The host’s Child is the story of Matilda Victoria Adelaide, a 75 year-old woman who once traveled the world with her father searching for the world’s most beautiful thing. Matilda was an only child who longed for her life to be as mystifying and magical as a fairytale. One day a strange young man appears unannounced in her lounge room. She offers him tea and biscuits and tells her story of falling in love with a wild boy named Feather and her attempt to build a ‘respectable’ life with him.
