{"product_id":"2026100011268-secondhand-margaret-cunningham-of-fintona-a-biography-signed","title":"Margaret Cunningham Of Fintona: A Biography (SIGNED)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Worn\/faded, no tears\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Signed\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBehind every great institution stands a formidable individual, and Margaret Cunningham was precisely such a figure — a woman whose vision, discipline, and extraordinary leadership transformed Fintona Girls' School in Melbourne into one of Australia's most distinguished centres of learning. Joan Gillison's authoritative biography chronicles the life of this remarkable educator, tracing her journey from her early years and training in London to her arrival in Melbourne and her tenure as deputy principal and then principal of Fintona from 1956 to 1962, painting a vivid portrait of a woman who shaped generations of young women through her progressive ideals, her Christian values, and her rare gifts of humour and humanity.\n\nGillison writes with the warmth and rigour befitting her subject, drawing on personal recollections and institutional records to present a nuanced account of a life devoted to education as a moral and social calling. The biography illuminates the broader mid-twentieth-century Australian educational landscape, arguing implicitly that great schools are built not by policy but by personality. Notably, this copy bears the signatures of both author Joan Gillison and a second inscriber, Beatrice J. Andrews, lending it a rare and intimate provenance — a tantalising reminder that the stories of such institutions live on in the hands of those who helped write them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50573119619291,"sku":"2026100011268-SECONDHAND","price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/ef51296e-5307-4039-bdb4-713b5d00576a.png?v=1791167761","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100011268-secondhand-margaret-cunningham-of-fintona-a-biography-signed","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}