Rebecca Bryn's Blog - Posts Tagged "wip"
For Their Country's Good
Research into an old family story led me to delve into my family history. The story, it seems is true. My great-great-great-uncle James was convicted of the very aggravated manslaughter of one of Lord Northampton's gamekeepers and was transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1841 along with his two cousins.
Further research unearthed trial transcripts, newspaper reports of the committal hearing, convict records, behaviour records on board HMS Tortoise, crew logs, probation records, and on and on.
Book One in the series is entitled On Different Shores and is based on real events. It deals with James's crime and his separation from Ella, the girl he loves.
Book Two is called Beneath Strange Stars and chronicles Ella's attempts to follow him.
Book Three, On Common Ground, my work-in-progress, will bring together the disparate threads and complete the story of James and Ella.
This series is a journey of discovery, and affords a fascinating glimpse into life in the 1840s and the men and women born into poverty who were transported to build a colony on convict labour.
I hope to publish On Different Shores later this year.
Further research unearthed trial transcripts, newspaper reports of the committal hearing, convict records, behaviour records on board HMS Tortoise, crew logs, probation records, and on and on.
Book One in the series is entitled On Different Shores and is based on real events. It deals with James's crime and his separation from Ella, the girl he loves.
Book Two is called Beneath Strange Stars and chronicles Ella's attempts to follow him.
Book Three, On Common Ground, my work-in-progress, will bring together the disparate threads and complete the story of James and Ella.
This series is a journey of discovery, and affords a fascinating glimpse into life in the 1840s and the men and women born into poverty who were transported to build a colony on convict labour.
I hope to publish On Different Shores later this year.
