The Golden Age (2014) is a novel by Australian writer Joan London.

Most of the story revolves around a children’s polio convalescent home called The Golden Age and which operated in Leederville, Western Australia from 1949 until 1959.

13-year-old Frank Gold is a refugee from Hungary. Unable to walk because of polio, he becomes passionate about poetry on meeting another patient, Sullivan.

He’d already been separated from his parents during WWII when his mother left him for his safety with her friend Julia and another woman, Hedwiga

Frank becomes friends with Elsa Briggs, who is about 6 months younger than Frank and born in Australia. She doesn’t understand Frank’s stories of hiding in an attic during WWII, of how “… ordinary people, neighbours, could kill each other” (188).

Joan London gently explores the difficulties for children being separated from their families while convalescing, of how the experience changed them and their relationships with parents & siblings.