Convicted: A Fascinating History of Colonial Australia
Australian History Social History Convict History Biography True Crime Family History Colonial Studies
Peter Bradley’s Convicted: A Fascinating History of Colonial Australia is the illustrated paperback that family historians, teachers and true-crime readers keep on their “forever” shelf. In 400 tightly-written pages, the former prosecutor turns archival detective, tracking every ship of the First and Second Fleets and reconstructing the lives of 137 real convicts—from their Old Bailey trials to the chain gangs of Sydney Cove. The result is a compulsively readable social history that balances gritty courtroom detail with the larger cultural forces that forged modern Australia.
What makes this 2018 Ventura Press edition especially collectable is its gallery of rarely-seen maps, passenger lists and courtroom sketches reproduced on matte art paper. Measuring 234 × 153 mm—larger than a standard paperback but still backpack-friendly—the book lies flat for easy reference while you trace your own ancestor’s transportation record. Owners praise the “clean, unmarked pages” and sturdy binding, noting that copies in this “very good, smoke-free” condition are increasingly scarce in the secondary market.
For educators, the work doubles as an engaging classroom text: chapter timelines align with the Australian Curriculum for Years 9–12, while side-bar “myth busters” tackle everything about convict tattoos to ration laws. Family historians value the comprehensive surname index and end-notes that point directly to the Tasmanian Archives, State Records NSW and the UK National Archives—saving weeks of research time. General readers simply enjoy a front-row seat to 18th- and 19th-century adventure, adversity and eventual redemption.
If you’re building an Australiana library, gifting a year-10 history buff, or hunting that elusive readable-yet-academic account of early Sydney, this well-preserved copy of Convicted delivers authoritative scholarship wrapped in a page-turning narrative—no dog-eared corners, no previous owner’s ink, just crisp illustrated history ready for its next 400-page journey.
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