I wanted a good convict yarn for my 2025 Aussie Reading Challenge. The vague memory of a TV miniseries popped up from the dim recesses of my memory. Those series were all the rage back in the eighties. A google search revealed that sure enough, it aired in 1982, when I was still at Primary School. Next I came across this retro novel which it was based on. It's an original edition from 1954 which was reasonably priced, so I took a chance and bought it. The dust jacket fell apart in my hand while I read the story, probably a sign of many readers before me. I found out the author, Catherine Gaskin, was just 25 years old she wrote it, which impresses me for her depth of research and authenticity in a time long before the internet.
Remembering almost nothing from the TV series (my parents probably sent me off to bed) I hoped this historical epic might tick my boxes.
MY THOUGHTS:
Sara Dane, a young woman from Kent, is convicted of theft based on flimsy circumstantial evidence. Sentenced to seven years of hard labor, she's on her way to Botany Bay aboard the Georgette. A sudden opportunity to work for the migrating Ryder family brings her out from the squalid hold full of feral female prisoners. Sara quickly captures the heart of a young sailor named Andrew Maclay, a restless dreamer with the instincts of an entrepreneur. Andrew sees vast potential in the harsh new land and vows to quit the nautical life and make Sara his wife.
The pair of them are soul mates with a prosperous touch, but at a high social cost. Sara fits in nowhere. Snobbish free citizens suspect her of angling for Andrew, while in reality she urged him to consider carefully before marrying a convict. And although they're building their fortune, it's still a penal colony. Servants are invariably former-convicts, who regard Sara with envy and resentment. The possible threat of sudden revolts from discontented staff members simmers away everywhere, not just on Andrew and Sara's property.
Then surprising news arrives. You might expect the opposite side of the world would be far enough away for somebody's past not to catch up with her, especially in the early 1800s. This is not the case for Sara. Her childhood crush, Richard Barwell, arrives in Sydney Town, along with his wife. Richard was always a bit of an unwise brat, and if he still possesses this quality things could turn pear-shaped for Sara in any number of ways.
An elegant dilletante named Louis deBourget, who survived the French Revolution, also shows up. And overlooking it all is political convict Jeremy Hogan, Andrew Maclay's faithful right-hand man. He burns with love for Sara but is far too loyal not to keep a lid on it. And without Jeremy's input, things might often turn bottom up very fast.
This is our very own Regency Era colonial novel. It's Jane Austen's own time period, but set in Sydney. Sara is comparable with strong and determined classics heroines such as Becky Sharp and Scarlett O'Hara, who understand that they'll have to look out for themselves rather than wait for anyone else to do it. But she's a far kinder and more loving mother than either of those two. Indeed, concern for her childrens' welfare guides her to make questionable decisions. Since she's willing to think of long term consequences and sacrifice her personal happiness for her sons' sakes, I prefer Sara hands down over those others, even though her reasoning sometimes makes me groan.
The Australian setting is well-utilized. Occasional paragraphs like this are delightful.
'As she rode along, she noticed the curved, prominent heads of a dozen or more kookaburras perched on a high bough of a ragged gum on her left. They remained motionless until she drew level; then their heads went back, beaks opened, and the bush for a mile around was abruptly regaled with their mad, wild laughter. Not in all the years that she'd been familiar with this sound had Sara been able to accept it as natural, nor had she schooled herself not to laugh with them. Her mouth curved delightedly; she threw her head back as they did and laughed inelegantly and without restraint. The noise they made followed her down the road, infectious, mocking; as strange and different as the country that had bred it.'
Overall, a good Aussie novel by a talented storyteller. When you think about it, Sara is in love with four men, sometimes simultaneously, yet somehow we're willing to nod along with it. She is definitely the sort of heroine who is adored by men and tolerated by women. If there'd been a sequel featuring the following generation, I'd grown invested enough in David, Duncan, Elizabeth, and Henriette to read it. However, given Gaskin's way of suddenly killing off good characters, perhaps it's a good thing there wasn't. My poor nerves couldn't take anymore.
🌟🌟🌟½
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