| ISBN |
9780143795773 (paperback) |
| Name |
Linnell, Garry, 1963- author. |
| Title |
Moonlite / Garry Linnell. |
| Published |
[North Sydney, New South Wales] : Michael Joseph Australia, an imprint of Penguin Random House Australia, 2020. |
| ©2020 |
| Description |
323 pages, 16 unnumberd pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm. |
| Notes |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Summary |
Charismatic, intelligent and handsome, George Scott is unlike any other bushranger. Born into a privileged life in famine-wracked Ireland, Scott's family loses its fortune and is forced to flee to New Zealand. There, Scott joins the local militia and fights as a soldier against the Maori in the brutal New Zealand wars. After recovering from a series of serious gunshot wounds, he sails to Australia and becomes a Lay Preacher, captivating churchgoers with his fiery and inspiring sermons. But Scott is also prone to bursts of madness. The local villagers back in Ireland often whispered that a 'wild drop' ran in the blood of the Scott family. One night he dons a mask in a small country town, arms himself with a gun and, dubbing himself Captain Moonlite, brazenly robs a bank before staging one of the country's most audacious jailbreaks. After falling in love with fellow prisoner James Nesbitt, a boyish petty criminal desperately searching for a father figure, Scott finds himself unable to shrug off his criminal past. Pursued and harassed by the police, he stages a dramatic siege and prepares for a final showdown with the law, and a macabre executioner without a nose. Told at a cracking pace, and based on many of the extensive letters Scott wrote from his death cell, Moonlite is set amid the violent and sexually-repressed era of Australia in the second half of the 19th century. With a cast of remarkable characters, it weaves together the extraordinary lives of our bushrangers and the desperation of a young nation eager to remove the stains of its convict past. But most of all, Moonlite is a tragic love story. |
| Subjects |
Moonlite, -- Captain, 1845-1880 |
| Bushrangers -- Australia -- Biography |
| Australia -- History -- 1788-1900 |
| Australia -- Social life and customs -- 1788-1900 |
| Australia -- Social conditions -- 1788-1900 |
| Genre |
Biographies |
| Links to Related Works |
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