'Dune is a four-letter word', said Griselda Sprigg on the first day of her family's attempt to make the first motorised crossing of the forbidding Simpson Desert.

'And so is bloody spinifex.'

Dune is a Four-letter Word tells the story of Griselda and Reg Sprigg's pioneering desert adventures - not only in the Simpson Desert but all over the vast Australian outback. Griselda's story is also the story of Arkaroola Sanctuary, how she, with her husband, Reg, turned a drought-stricken sheep station into the magnificent flora and fauna reserve and tourist mecca it is today.

The late Rod Maclean was an author, journalist and television reporter and the late Griselda Sprigg was the first white woman to cross the Simpson Desert.

'I came to realise that Griselda Sprigg is a great Australian. Now, in the pages of this book, readers the wide world over can make the same discovery.' - Dick Smith