Making of Martin Sparrow/The Ship That Never Was
Peter Cochrane + Adam Courtenay
Queensland Terrace, State Library of Queensland
History/War Stories
417
#Performances
#About the event
Duration: 60 minutes
Martin Sparrow is already struggling when the Hawkesbury's great flood of March 1806 lays waste to him and his farm. Luckless, lovelorn and deep in debt, the ex-convict is confronted with a choice.
The greatest escape story of Australian colonial history by the son of Australia's best-loved storyteller. In 1823, Cockney sailor and chancer James Porter was convicted of stealing a stack of beaver furs and transported halfway around the world to Van Dieman's Land.
Chair: Anna Johnston
Presented by The University of Queensland
#Artists
Peter Cochrane
Peter Cochrane is a widely published historian and novelist based in Sydney. He wrote the companion volume to the ABC TV series, Australians at War. He is best known for his book Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy, which won the inaugural Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History and the Age Book of the Year award.
His second novel was published this year: The Making of Martin Sparrow (Penguin/Viking).
He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Adam Courtenay
Adam Courtenay is a Sydney-based writer and journalist who has had a long career in the UK and Australia, writing for papers such as the Financial Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Australian Financial Review and the UK Sunday Times.
He is the son of Australia’s best-loved storyteller Bryce Courtenay. He is the author of two previous books, Blood Rubber and Amazon Men.
#Moderator
Anna Johnston
Anna Johnston is an ARC Future Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at The University of Queensland, and Associate Professor in English Literature in the School of Communication and Arts.
