Sharon Evans Big Sky Publishing – Marketing & Communications, www.bigskypublishing.com.au
What do you get when you put super-uber cool nicknames together with a raft of legendary exploits from daring no-gooders? Six of Australia’s renown Bushrangers of course. But, are the stories surrounding them true? Author Jane Smith reveals all….
The stories of the bushrangers have become the stuff of legend and with time many of the tales have been distorted and falsified until now! Queensland author, historian and Concordia Lutheran College librarian/archivist Jane Smiths new series The Australian Bushranger sets out to separate fact from fiction.
The series features meticulously researched, stand alone books, each detailing the colourful lives of six of Australia’s most famous bushrangers of the gold rush era – Captain Thunderbolt, Captain Moonlite, Frank Gardiner, Ben Hall, and the two men known as ‘Captain Starlight’.
Intrigued by the sheer audacity of their behaviour Smith set out discover why they acted the way they did – unravelling their lives, from their background and the circumstances and events that led them to crime, and, where relevant, their capture and death. Society at the time is explored and for the first time many of the myths around their lives and their legendary exploits are busted. Thunderbolt for example took over a year to write due to the many contradictory stories regarding his ‘career’.
Smith explains, “Many myths have been told about the bushrangers and many books that are currently in print are little more than transcriptions of oral histories. My books are based on extensive research and consequently they correct these myths. I hope that my books will give the reader a sense of the different world that was 19th century Australia, and a better understanding of the factors that led these people into their desperate lives of crime.”
Full of interesting facts and loaded with images, newspaper clippings and records the first two books in the series provide an insight into the careers of Captain Thunderbolt (NSW), whose lacklustre skill with the gun lead to the belief he abhorred violence, and Captain Moonlite (VIC), a charismatic lay preacher gone bad, although, he protested his innocence until his death on the gallows!
The Australian Bushranger series is aimed at late primary to young adult readers and is a useful adjunct to the national school’s curriculum in English and History. However with shootouts, acts of courage or no-good daring and new facts the lives of these Australian Bushrangers will please young and old. Concise , intelligent and easy to read the series are sure to entertain.
Australian Bushrangers will be launched next Thursday 20 March, 4pm at the Concordia Lutheran College Library, Toowoomba by Toowoomba Regional Council’s Special Collections Librarian Jayne Fitzpatrick.
Book Launch Details
Thursday 20 March, 4pm
Concordia Lutheran College – Library
Redlands Campus, 154 Stephen St, Toowoomba
About the Author – Jane Smith is a school Librarian and Archivist at Concordia Lutheran College, Toowoomba, QLD. She grew up in Brisbane and practised as a physiotherapist in country NSW before moving back to QLD and retraining as a librarian. She is married and has two teenage children who are nearly all grown up and in the process of emptying the nest. Jane enjoys reading, watching movies, listening to live music, singing in a community choir and spending time with her family and cat. She is fascinated by history and love visiting old houses. For over nine years she has met monthly for ‘Book Club’ meetings at a café with a group of loyal friends; they call it ‘Book Club’ but it’s really about the coffee, the cake, and the friendship.
