‘Look for the Red Umbrella’ is the story of the Greig family who immigrated to Ballarat during the gold rush. The heart of the story revolves around one of the daughters – Margaret Muller – and her experience running a number of umbrella and parasol stores in Ballarat in the 1800’s. I loved the romantic notion of this, and in particular that one of these shops was located in the very gorgeous bookstore @collinsbooksellersonlydiard that I spend so much of my time. I imagined myself wandering through the same rooms that Margaret and her customers did many years ago.

What I didn’t expect in this book was the beautiful story of this family, full of many, many twists and turns that Geoff has created.

Geoff has intertwined newspaper advertisements, articles and letters with a lilting interpretation of how the story comes together and he has done this in such a clever way. The story feels like it is naturally unfolding through each page and the inclusion of these original newspaper clippings – with their formal language and quaint phrases – completely transported me into the 1800’s. One of my favourites was advertising a Boxing Day Fete in 1872 (it felt very early-era Begonia Festival!).

But I guess what I loved most was getting to know Geoff over the last few weeks, hearing about the research he did to create the story and watching it all get celebrated last week. This was a book launch full of warmth and celebration and it was an honour to be a part of it.

This book is such a treat! I highly recommend it xx

Renee Price (Read by Renee)

“Look for the Red Umbrella” is a ripping yarn. Beautifully researched and written and proves that every person ever born lives a life of mystery, adventure, and drama. It’s like looking for gold. You simply have to dig below the surface.

Gary Adams – actor, musician & writer

What an intriguing delight. I read this book at a gallop one wet weekend in Ballarat. Humanity, in all our glorious complexity and it is set in the heart of this charming town—an irresistible combination of history and geography, narrative and landscape. 

Doug Bradby – historian & author

Look for the Red Umbrella by Geoff McArthur is a historical story of a Scottish family who settled in Ballarat Victoria in the 1850s. John and Margaret Greig, with their four children, Isabella, Agnes, John, and Maggie, spent three years in Sydney before the lure of the gold rush drew them to Ballarat.  The family witnessed the attack on the Eureka Stockade and many years later Agnes’ recollections were published in The Argus. 

Geoff McArthur discovered that Agnes Greig had lived in the house that he and his wife have lived in for many years. He has extensively researched the Greig family to write this book. There’s a range of characters, both community-minded and those with dubious intentions. Fortunes are made and lost in the goldfields and in the retail industry. One very interesting character is Agnes’s younger sister Margaret, who married a young German man named Frederick Muller. He was a rather outspoken man who upset other Ballarat business owners. Frederick opened an umbrella shop and Margaret played a significant role. As a daughter of a tailor, she was a skilled seamstress. Not all in their marriage went to plan as Fred deserted her and was convicted of fraud.

Margaret is an amazing, strong, courageous woman who ran a successful business at a time when business was dominated by men. Who knew umbrella making could be so competitive!? It is interesting to learn about the events in Ballarat at that time through the lives of the descendants of John and Margaret Greig. Their children and grandchildren feature in many newspaper articles.

I am sure many people wonder about who lived in and the history surrounding their own house. It is fortunate for Geoff that this prominent and newsworthy family was associated with his. Thoroughly recommend this informative book which takes you back in time to the early years of Australian history.

Anne Steer – Beauty & Lace Bookclub

Look for the Red Umbrella by Geoff McArthur is a recounting of Australian gold rush history based around the Muller/Greig families. Geoff McArthur has a connection to the family as both he and the Greig’s lived in the same home, although many years had passed in between. The lives came alive through research, letters to the editor and newspaper articles to highlight what was important at the time, the struggles that occurred and how events in history affected and created opportunities for enterprising people.
The information presented created a richness and colour to history that I had not already known and for this I am thankful for the opportunity to have read this insightful book.
Thank you Shawline Publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

Krystyna Horsten – Beauty and Lace Bookclub

I remember as a child, many visits to Ballarat. Visiting Sovereign Hill was a highlight, and the panning for gold. This book made me remember those visits, and further brought to life the Gold Rush era in our very own country in the 1850’s. Our neighbours when I was a child, originated from Ballarat and still had family living there, which is where we stayed when visiting. Their family history of living in Ballarat, and reading this book, has made me want to find out even more! They too were a Scottish family, settled in Ballarat, but then marriages saw some of them move to Adelaide in the 1960’s
The book is wonderfully, and very thoroughly researched. Our own country, yet seems a whole different world and way of living.
We can certainly see today how far we have come in this 170 years or so, and how much more informative ( in my opinion) Newspaper articles were. So much is learnt in reading the articles from the Argus, back in the mid 1800’s, some of which are featured in this delightful book.
I am grateful for the opportunity to read ‘Look for the Red Umbrella’ and wish to thank Geoff McArthur for what must have been years of research on his behalf, and to then put it into his own words.
Thanks also Beauty & Lace and Shawline Group, for the opportunity to read and learn about one of our very own historical towns.

Lynn Sinclair – Beauty and Lace Bookclub

Thank you, so much Shawline Publishing, Beauty and Lace and local Ballarat researcher Geoff McArthur for the opportunity to read and review Geoff’s debut non-fiction novel “Look for the Red Umbrella. Admittedly non-fiction isn’t a genre I normally gravitate towards, but having read the blurb, and loving the title and the book cover, and not knowing anything about either Ballarat or Bendigo’s gold mining history I was intrigued.

The story of our heroine the successful businesswomen Margaret Muller in a time when businesses were largely run only by men is a true success story of its time. Married to a flamboyant domineering husband, Mr. Frederick Mueller (Muller) who regularly publicly aired his grievances with rival umbrella tradesman, Mr. Boxhorn via the various local newspapers of the time was a constant source of entertainment for the people of Ballarat.

Margaret was Ballarat’s most admired and talented umbrella designer and manufacturer, who built her own loyal clientele, a generous employer who cared for and encouraged her staff and family who climbed the ranks and managed new stores as they opened in Bendigo 61 miles North-east of Ballarat.

Margaret was a dedicated mother, who dearly loved her very bright, musically gifted children, who were members of the Ballarat Orchestra who performed regularly. With Margaret’s daughter Betha marrying a prominent Victorian (hurricane) Sigismund Schlam who later became the Mayor of Menzies, who was instrumental in progressing the Menzies – to – Kalgoorlie rail line to fruition.

I loved that it was a chance search of rate records that unearthed that Geoff’s wife, Anne’s childhood family home was the same one that Agnes Greig had lived and died in, and the very home that he and his wife actually lived in. I am in awe of the astounding amount of research Geoff has undertaken in the writing of this very interesting story, the sheer number of newspapers, letters and court reports Geoff would have read through makes my eyes water. I also loved the organic way, that Geoff’s dad was of all things, a newspaper compositor, how fitting.

So intrigued with the fascinating history of Australian female umbrella designers, I did a quick google search and found a wonderful story published in September 2015 on the incredible Brisbane local Alicia Mora-Hyde who after 40 years is still learning the trade, and who at that time may have been the “only woman left in the world that was still able to make an umbrella from start to finish.” What an amazing skill, now, that’s something I could definitely hang my hat (umbrella) on. ☂

Kathy – Goodreads Review

If you ever needed inspiration for looking into your family tree then look no further than, Look for the Red Umbrella, by Geoff McArthur. It is a wonderful example of combining all types of resources to create an historical account of a family and their life well lived.
Congratulations on providing such an entertaining read. I’m sure many hours of research and documentation provided the stimulus.

Vicki James – Beauty & Lace Bookclub

Thank you so much to beauty and lace for allowing me to read this novel.
It was wonderful to read all of these local things and even have snippets of local newspaper articles.
Because I was familiar with the areas I found myself picturing everything so much more vividly.
Geoff (author) obviously did a massive amount of research and actually taught me a lot more than I already knew.If he has any other novels I would love to read them. I highly recommend giving this book a read.

Stacey Dobson _ Beauty and Lace Bookclub

This book left me feeling nostalgic as I have a real love for Ballarat. I have had many visits there both as a young child and as an adult with my children as well. There were visits to Sovereign Hill dressing up in olden-day clothes, buying a WANTED sign with my name on it, gold panning and just soaking up all that was. Kryall Castle and Lake Wendouree where we stayed nearby at a tourist park and many other sites I hold dear.
I was so intrigued by the history as I thought I knew enough about Ballarat but after reading this book I`d like to go back there and visit with different eyes and knowledge I have now learned from this wonderful writer.
Ballarat really was a thriving place and I have never put thought into how they made umbrellas years ago, or most things for that matter.
This book really is a gem and I sincerely thank Geoff McArthur for the absolute in-depth research he has done as that must have taken hours on end. So very fascinating and insightful, was thoroughly enjoyed by me

Cindy Warne – Beauty and Lace Bookslub