• Title: Miles McGinty • Author: Tom Gilling • Setting / Time Period: Late 19th century Australia (starting 1856) ✨ Premise & Main Characters The story begins with two children — Miles McGinty and Isabel Dowling — born on the same night, yet into very different worlds. Miles is the illegitimate son of an actress in a travelling theatre troupe; Isabel is the privileged daughter of a wealthy banker. As they grow up separately, each becomes fascinated with flight in their own way: Isabel becomes one of the first balloon-riders in Australia; Miles becomes obsessed with the idea of building a flying machine. Story Arc & Key Events • Miles drifts through a colorful and rough-around-the-edges world of 19th-century Australia — encountering showmen, levitators, whimsical artists, and adventurers — all part of a larger-than-life cast that shapes his ambition. • Meanwhile, Isabel grows up in contrast: refined, educated, independent, but restless. Early on she defies conventions (for her time) and takes flight — literally — by riding a hot-air balloon as a child, making a bold statement about her own destiny. • Their paths eventually cross. When they meet, their shared fascination with flying — and with breaking free from societal expectations — draws them together. Miles, inspired by old flight-notebooks and ideas, decides to build a flying machine; Isabel becomes his partner in hope and dream. • The novel becomes a blend of historical realism, magical-realism, romantic idealism — with a strong motif of “flight” as metaphor for freedom, ambition, love, and transcendence.