A Dramatic Inheritance

By Boyd Byron

Get ready for a whirlwind ride as this book takes you on a captivating journey through the tumultuous life of the author’s mother. Beginning with her affair with the author’s father in 1935, the story delves into the complexities of their relationship, including two abortions, familial conflicts, and a marriage that was granted permission by an investigating Magistrate. Tragically, the story takes a sharp turn with the sudden death of the author’s father in a motorbike accident.

As the author’s mother navigates through the aftermath of this tragedy, the book explores her subsequent loves and children, all while weaving in a powerful thread of mental health struggles, including suicides, incest, and numerous deaths over the years. One particularly intriguing aspect of the story is the long romantic liaison between the author’s mother and a Chelmsford Royal Commission doctor, who later confesses to the affair.

The book also offers a unique glimpse into the functioning of a modern family coping with immense stress. With a compelling narrative and a richly detailed account of the author’s family history, this book is sure to keep you hooked until the very end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jul 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781528911474

Boyd Byron

Boyd Byron has enjoyed an unusually full and happy life. Now 85, with many past careers. he spent 20 years with one large mining engineering company, and then departed (when D&GM), never to work for others again. He became an artist and sculptor, an author of 4 books, created 2 ocean going yachts, designed and constructed 4 houses, designed and cast many large carillon bells, conserved much old sculpture and historical metal objects, founded an important bamboo nursery, and an Art Foundry, created and cast some of Australia’s largest bronzes, and has written much poetry. When asked how or why, he replies, “Energy, passion, curiosity, and old age giving me longer to do it all.” “Life is full of adventure and curiosities not many of us explore, but they are waiting to be taken up by those brave enough! Making money alone is boring:” Boyd has founded two successful businesses, and still is busy painting large 30”+ canvasses, and managing his newly founded Art Gallery near Forster NSW. As he gets older, he still manages to enjoy most of it! “All pastimes become creative, be it woodwork, art, sculpture, building, boats, jewellery, knitting, etc., except making more money using money, a non-creative, non-productive evil that disadvantages the poor.” Having reached the ripe old age of 85, I do not hesitate to recommend reading the book ‘Happiness’, written by Matthieu Ricard a Buddhist’s book that does not teach Buddhism. Everyone has a responsibility to create happiness, and relationship to make the world a better place (and free of Russia’s recent contribution). Better Tsychovsky rather than Putin! Happiness is infectious, creative, and makes the world your world also, a better place, and a little love helps. It is not an event, but a process, continuous, and creates its own awareness, being infectious! This is a book about a family that did not believe altogether about the principles of happiness, and suffered because of it all their lives, due to inherited factors.

Book preview

About the Author

Boyd Byron has enjoyed an unusually full and happy life. Now 85, with many past careers. he spent 20 years with one large mining engineering company, and then departed (when D&GM), never to work for others again. He became an artist and sculptor, an author of 4 books, created 2 ocean going yachts, designed and constructed 4 houses, designed and cast many large carillon bells, conserved much old sculpture and historical metal objects, founded an important bamboo nursery, and an Art Foundry, created and cast some of Australia’s largest bronzes, and has written much poetry. When asked how or why, he replies, Energy, passion, curiosity, and old age giving me longer to do it all.

Life is full of adventure and curiosities not many of us explore, but they are waiting to be taken up by those brave enough! Making money alone is boring:

Boyd has founded two successful businesses, and still is busy painting large 30"+ canvasses, and managing his newly founded Art Gallery near Forster NSW. As he gets older, he still manages to enjoy most of it!

All pastimes become creative, be it woodwork, art, sculpture, building, boats, jewellery, knitting, etc., except making more money using money, a non-creative, non-productive evil that disadvantages the poor. Having reached the ripe old age of 85, I do not hesitate to recommend reading the book ‘Happiness’, written by Matthieu Ricard a Buddhist’s book that does not teach Buddhism.

Everyone has a responsibility to create happiness, and relationship to make the world a better place (and free of Russia’s recent contribution). Better Tsychovsky rather than Putin!

Happiness is infectious, creative, and makes the world your world also, a better place, and a little love helps. It is not an event, but a process, continuous, and creates its own awareness, being infectious!

This is a book about a family that did not believe altogether about the principles of happiness, and suffered because of it all their lives, due to inherited factors.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the fact that Government health aid can easily recognise people that are prone to these mental problems earlier than the problems occur. Spending money preventing the problems happening will save much more money than trying to fix the problems after they begin to occur. So families that are likely to be prone to Schizophrenia and mental problems should be identified and treated early on before problems develop. By watching and helping to see it does not occur, society can save part of the huge current investment. It is easy to predict and limit our investment to younger people that may cause chaos in the future, thus deflecting or avoiding the problem of more mental illness negatives in society. Surely this is common sense, but it needs foresight, study, and resources.

The people mostly effected are, on average, unusually talented, brilliant people in selected areas, sometimes unusually dangerous, and often causing trouble that can be earlier diverted or avoided.

Copyright Information ©

Boyd Byron 2023

The right of Boyd Byron to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528911078 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528911474 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

With his acknowledged help, care and dedication, my grandson has assisted me time and time again, as a qualified Doctor of Medicine studying Psychiatry in Melbourne, and as an IT specialist. His unfailing care, skill and acceptance of human foibles has been indispensable.

Introduction

This is a work of fiction; a novel, based originally on my mother’s bawdy, free love life, when she was still a child, starting at 13 years old in paradise; Manly, Sydney, in 1934. Pristine hills, white sand, and unspoiled beaches; beauty everywhere, hills of bronzed gum tips, angophoras, covered in wildflowers, and sandstone everywhere; everything long before computers. This story is unique, full of unequalled drama, unfolding with startling facts, but full of unnecessary and untreated madness as well.

As the tale started developing, it became obvious that there was too much truth for live people to tolerate if revealed. So I made the decision to expand the characters beyond reality; to introduce a few new equally startling characters to make sure that my family cannot be associated with the story. So don’t make the mistake to think that you are reading about real people, or just my family; But such people do exist.

All these characters that I have written about exist somewhere in my experience, now that I am 85 years long with my life near its end!

The objective of this book is to tell this Government that they will reap a huge reward if they invest a little more in these problems a little earlier, with sufficient help money. As an example, it is a well-known fact that Schizophrenia and Bi Polar disorder is usually brought on a person between the age of 15 and 25, who experiences a traumatic event that they can’t cope with. They are normal sane people, clever than most, but once they have got the problem, it stays with them for life and requires treatment, often medication, and hospitalization as well.

It does untold damage to the people around them. Prominently, suicide comes into it too, frequently and unnecessarily.

The government has recently introduced a new ‘Mental Health’ policy change, which is helping, but still not meeting the demand. For example, when I tried testing the system, I was offered ‘Phone Counselling’, only after finding local services that were available 300 miles south, or north (Coffs Harbor, or Newcastle).’Unsatisfactory’ is the word I would use; talking to a voice with no body. I am currently consulting a government service to attempt saving the life of another talented relative.

It is easy to identify the families and the millions of people prone to this terrible disease, because it tends to be inherited. For example, more than 45 percent of my blood relatives, directly related to me, have been certified by qualified psychiatrists, and that doesn’t include the worthy people who have not been certified, but surely should have been treated and certified. They are living within the limits that the disease permits them. Help is not normally available because often no one is there, or they are too scared to ask for help.

Help, not normally available, because no one is there because of shortage of money, or because they are too scared to ask for help!

We all struggle often with unacceptable thoughts, and that doesn’t make us ‘mad’, but we are ALL somewhere on the ladder of ‘sanity versus insanity’, trying to find that evasive trouble-free balance and peace. Most of us get by with a bit of worrying, but with some, it gets out of hand and they need a little help.

Surely, it is ultimately profitable to spend some money to prevent disaster and chaos from happening, so these people can bring their unusual talent to help society rather than try and patch them up all their long lives after the problem gets out of hand. If we spend a little now helping to avoid this massive problem, it will save us from spending a lot more ineffectively and expensively later; let alone the damage they can do to others in the process of trying to handle their own problems.

Suicide and murder statistics will even benefit too, and while I cannot lay claim to a family murderer, suicide is not uncommon. Yesterdays shooting of six people in Queensland is a prime example! This conspiracy theory that got out of hand with these talented indigenous people caused the loss and death of not only themselves, but two policemen and a neighbour!

Should we cover mental illness up, be ashamed of its existence in a person, or a family member? Or should we be proud of working openly towards doing something about it. I remember my uncle, George, helping people long ago; some quite famous people as well, coping with the consequence of their mental problems. One was Peter Dawson, the famous aboriginal baritone, and another was Leslie Adams, whom he actually married. Leslie Adams, the famous Pianist and composer.

George was a brilliant man, but obviously certifiable; married seven times, and proud of it, but a monster in the way he married women, without a second thought, and the way he treated his numerous children, and wives was occasionally intolerable. He was capable, obviously very competent at times, but dangerous and selfish through mental illness. He had many close relatives galore certified, but he was never certified himself!

Most families have a much higher presence of family related mental illness that they know about or admit to, said to be close to 40% in Australia, a relatively sane country, so it is probably higher in most other countries!

I am appealing to those political masters we elect, to think about the profit brought by brought by spending a little money on mental treatment now, knowing it will save a lifetime of mental instability and replace society’s shortcoming with brilliantly productive creative minds operating reasonably for a lifetime.

Chapter 1

2022’s Revisit To 1937

This controversial, hysterical, and fictional biography is centred around my mother’s tragic life, interwoven with various relatives suffering similar afflictions, and my introspective and passionate analysis; the pain and laughter from an almost constant series of startling events, and their interaction with my eccentric relatives. I often wonder about people who are bored, or don’t know what to do with themselves, as life seems such a smorgasbord of different things to do for me that I am greedy and want to try many at once.

But then, approximately 45 percent of my direct blood relatives had been diagnosed by psychiatrists with mental disorders, such as Schizophrenia or, Bi-polar disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, (and a genetic brilliance that exists within both parental bloodlines at the same time!)

My parents started their life-long love at age 15 and 13, paddling around Manly’s unspoiled paradise in 1934, in my father’s homemade tin canoe. Just imagine what it