Four Australian women writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries-a time when stories of bush heroism and mateship abounded, a time when a writing career might be an elusive thing for a woman.

Friends and Rivals is a vivid and engaging account of the intersecting and entwined lives of Ethel Turner, author of the much loved Seven Little Australians, Barbara Baynton, who wrote of the harshness of bush life, Nettie Palmer, essayist and critic, and Henry Handel Richardson, of The Getting of Wisdom and The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney fame.

Brenda Niall illuminates a fascinating time in Australia's literary history and brings to life the remarkable women who made it so.