Published in 1933 by Angus and Robertson and illustrated with sketches by his eldest son, Lyell, this book contains 71 chapters, each based on one of his fortnightly articles in The Australasian. The foreword was written by the distinguished Professor of Anatomy in the University of Melbourne, Frederic Wood Jones, FRS, extracts of which are published in several of the 58 reviews I have been able to trace. They are worth quoting here:
Charles Fenner has laid us all under a debt, for he has, with an art that conceals art, made easy the entry into the great world of wonderment in Nature in which we are all free to wander and to speculate and to make intellectual and spiritual gain…Australia is fortunate that within her borders there is a man capable of leading youth towards a wonderment that makes for reverence in a sunset, a gum-tree, or a bandicoot; and who does this out of the fullness of his knowledge and not of mere uninstructed sentimentality…There will come a day when young Australians will be jealous of any interference with a fauna and flora so full of interest as is that of their native land…when that day is fully accomplished then it will be admitted that the writings of Charles Fenner took a large part in its advent.
This book is also based on the Tellurian articles; it was published by Georgian House in 1944 and contains 12 charming drawings by John Goodchild. It received excellent reviews and a World-Wide broadcast by Radio Australia in October 1947. Of the 61 chapters, most are on Australian topics, but 16 draw on experiences during his overseas trips in 1931 and 1937.
To explain the title and the contents of this book of essays, Fenner wrote in the Foreword:
Proverbs are usually true. But there are exceptions. It is not impossible for a rolling stone to gather some moss. Rolling stones have, indeed, the opportunity for gathering a wide variety of mosses. During a long life the author has been a rolling stone in two ways: first, in the realms of science and literature; and second among the peoples and places of the world. There are two sections: Travel notes from an Australian viewpoint, and Science notes, with two or three chapters which are of neither travel nor science.
Like Mostly Australian, this book, published in 1946 by Georgian House, is a collection of 28 essays, and is illustrated by 24 John Goodchild drawings.