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Start giftingThe Last Convict
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn more'It's a good story, Samuel. You're a piece of living history.'
Oxford 1863: Young Samuel Speed sets a barley stack alight in the hope it will earn him a bed in prison for the night. He wants nothing more than a morsel of food in his belly and a warm place to sleep off the streets. What he receives is a sentence of seven years' servitude, to be served half a world away in the penal colony of Fremantle, Western Australia.
When Samuel boards the transport ship Belgravia, he is stripped of his clothing and even his name, and given regulations of when to rise, eat, clean and sleep. On arrival at Fremantle Prison, hard labour is added to the mix and he wonders if life can get any worse. The only solace he finds is a love of reading, which allows the likes of Tom Sawyer and Oliver Twist to become his lifelong friends.
Samuel is granted a ticket of leave in 1867 and full freedom in 1871, but what sort of life can a man forge for himself in the colony, with no skills, no money and no family? Will it be the beginning of the life he has always dreamed of, or do some sentences truly never end?
A colourful recreation of the life and times of the last known convict to be sent to Australia, The Last Convict is a moving study of old age and loneliness, as one social outcast finds meaning in his impoverished life through the power of literature. Meticulously researched and brilliantly woven into an engaging fictional account, it is an unforgettable story by an award-winning writer and historian.
'A story of hardship and privation, alongside high adventure, a fresh start in the colonies, and the protagonist's enduring solace in discovering the delights of literature. A ripping yarn.' The Age
Anthony Hill (Author)
Anthony Hill is a multi-award-winning, bestselling author.
His novel Soldier Boy, about Australia's youngest known Anzac, was winner of the 2002 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Books for Young Adults. More recently, his children's book, Captain Cook's Apprentice, won the 2009 NSW Premier's Young People's History Prize.
Soldier Boy, Young Digger, Animal Heroes and For Love as Country follow as further testimony to his remarkable ability to extensively research historical material and, from wide-ranging sources, piece together a moving and exciting story.
He is also the author of two novellas, the beautiful Shadow Dog, and the award-winning The Burnt Stick, illustrated by Mark Sofilas, as well as the picture book, Lucy's Cat and the Rainbow Birds, illustrated by Jane Tanner.
After 40 years living in Canberra, Anthony and his wife, Gillian,have moved to the Mornington Peninsula. Their daughter, son-in-law and grand-daughter, Emily, live in Melbourne.
Julian Garner (Reader)
Julian Garner graduated the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) in 1993. His theatre credits include The Turquoise Elephant for Griffin Theatre Company, Inner Voices for Red Line Productions, Arcadia and Storm Boy for Sydney Theatre Company, The Crucible, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing and Cyrano de Bergerac for Sport for Jove.
His television credits include Pulse, Home and Away, Top of the Lake: China Girl, Janet King, McLeod's Daughters, Blackjack, and, more recently, the Peter Duncan-directed miniseries Fallout. His film credits include Top End Wedding, Baba, Killing Ground, Problem Play, Head On and I Am Woman.
Anthony Hill (Author)
Anthony Hill is a multi-award-winning, bestselling author.
His novel Soldier Boy, about Australia's youngest known Anzac, was winner of the 2002 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Books for Young Adults. More recently, his children's book, Captain Cook's Apprentice, won the 2009 NSW Premier's Young People's History Prize.
Soldier Boy, Young Digger, Animal Heroes and For Love as Country follow as further testimony to his remarkable ability to extensively research historical material and, from wide-ranging sources, piece together a moving and exciting story.
He is also the author of two novellas, the beautiful Shadow Dog, and the award-winning The Burnt Stick, illustrated by Mark Sofilas, as well as the picture book, Lucy's Cat and the Rainbow Birds, illustrated by Jane Tanner.
After 40 years living in Canberra, Anthony and his wife, Gillian,have moved to the Mornington Peninsula. Their daughter, son-in-law and grand-daughter, Emily, live in Melbourne.
Julian Garner (Reader)
Julian Garner graduated the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) in 1993. His theatre credits include The Turquoise Elephant for Griffin Theatre Company, Inner Voices for Red Line Productions, Arcadia and Storm Boy for Sydney Theatre Company, The Crucible, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing and Cyrano de Bergerac for Sport for Jove.
His television credits include Pulse, Home and Away, Top of the Lake: China Girl, Janet King, McLeod's Daughters, Blackjack, and, more recently, the Peter Duncan-directed miniseries Fallout. His film credits include Top End Wedding, Baba, Killing Ground, Problem Play, Head On and I Am Woman.