''Some day,' Lawson wrote, 'an Australian writer will come along who'll remind the critics and readers of Dickens, Carlyle, and Thackeray mixed, and he'll do justice to these little customs of ours.' Even then that writer was at work, and his name was Lawson.' GEOFFREY BLAINEY, one of our great historians, has written a marvellous introduction into the life and works of Australia's favourite writers. A lifelong devotee, he has painstakingly selected the very best of Henry Lawson for this collection, which includes 'The Drover's Wife', 'Joe Wilson's Courtship', 'Water Them Geraniums' and 'The Loaded Dog'. With its tales of gold prospecting and of settlers suffering hardships and heartbreak, as well as his seldom seen verse, this is the essential Lawson collection - the classic of Australian classics.