Lee Forrest is my pen name. I’m a research scientist who has published books and articles with Cambridge University Press and other leading publishers. Beyond Australia is my first work of fiction.

The 1870s were the decade I most like to visit, because they were the last period before modern times. What makes life modern is our rapid contact with other people. This has come from inventions that first caught on in the last quarter of the 1800s. Especially:

We could talk with each other on the telephone (invented 1876).

We could ride a “safety” bicycle (both wheels the same size), invented 1885).

We could hop on a trolley (introduced 1888 in the USA),

In the New York City area, at least, we could get national news on an almost hourly basis (Pulitzer’s and Hearst’s mass circulation dailies, which updated editions during the day with the help of the linotype, invented 1885).

However, we also lost our easy physical closeness with each other. I described in the book how unaware people were of the many ways we could catch infections, including from doctors. A surgeon in Vienna had published evidence of how doctors spread disease on their hands a full thirty years before Susan met Dr. Northrup, but the medical community explained it away and even persecuted the doctor, Ignatz Semmelweis. By 1872 specific germs hadn’t yet been identified, but an English surgeon, Joseph Lister, was beginning his campaign for antiseptic methods. The germ theory remained controversial for years, but when it finally caught on it led to the great modern self-consciousness about the dangers of dirt. This probably went too far, but that’s another story.

I’m creating a newsletter where I give notes on the historical references in the book, as well as some general background.