Books
COMING FEB 2025 - One Free Woman: The True Story of Convict Hannah Rigby
'With meticulous research and engaging writing, Jane Smith not only creates a fascinating portrait of the extraordinary life of the truly unstoppable Hannah Rigby, but also deftly situates it within a richly-textured tapestry of early colonial life in Australia, in all its cruelties, characters, and complexities.'
Sophie Masson AM, award-winning author.
Sophie Masson AM, award-winning author.
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PRAISE FOR 'ONE FREE WOMAN' 'Author and historian Jane Smith does an amazing job building a picture of Hannah Rigby’s life, managing to evoke the sights and smells and atmosphere of the time as well as the otherwise unimaginable hardships for Hannah. Jane uses a range of sources, such as first-person logbooks and diaries, public records, and existing scholarship to piece together not just Hannah’s life, but also the people that she comes into contact with and the social and political events of the time. This is real history; Hannah’s life was relatively small and insignificant, but Jane has given her a story and some dignity - if not a voice. Thank you Jane for bringing us Hannah’s story - a wonderful, if not always comfortable read. ' Laura Black One Free Woman
will be launched at Avid Reader 173 Boundary St, West End on Sat 29 March 2025, 3pm. Free! Book sales and signing. |
Hannah Rigby was a poor Liverpool seamstress, a prisoner and a serial thief. Exiled from her homeland, oppressed by poverty and rigid social mores, used and discarded by a series of men. An “exemplary” servant who was fond of a lark – and a single mother determined to keep her family together.
One Free Woman tells the compelling true story of the only female convict to stay in Moreton Bay when the penal settlement closed – a woman who notoriously served three separate sentences of transportation, including two at one of the harshest establishments in the country. It is a heartbreaking and sensitively told story of a life that was typical of many women of the time struggling against poverty and gender inequality – women whose voices throughout history have seldom been heard. |
PRAISE FOR 'ONE FREE WOMAN' 'Devastating and hopeful in equal measure, One Free Woman is a beautifully detailed map of a life lived large in desperate times. Through the gems she has uncovered from her meticulous research, Smith reveals how the political structures, societal expectations, and physical constrictions of 1800s England and colonial Australia shaped Hannah Rigby's life. She could be writing about 2024, not 200 years earlier, in the passages detailing views on imprisonment and whether to reform and help people out of their terrible circumstances, or to squash and punish. These chapters are a sobering reminder that if we don't learn from our past, we are doomed to repeat it. From the horror of the convicts' trip to Australia, to the puff and pomp of certain figures in colonial Sydney (Robert Crawford, take a bow!), to scraps over stolen teaspoons and lace, and the tragic tale of Dr Ballow, who gave his life in an attempt to save others, Smith makes history come alive. Hannah herself emerges as a fighter moving through this backdrop - in her determination to keep her family together, she creates (and recreates, time and again) a life for herself and her children as she is cast aside by their fathers, spends time in the notorious Parramatta Female Factory, and brushes shoulders with a cast of characters as rich and varied as any Dickens novel. One Free Woman is a must-read for anyone interested in history, and in life!' - Dee Mahoney |
NEW!
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In Scotland, 1826, Meggy McKessar comes to live and work at John Lovie’s Aberdeenshire farm. John’s widowed mother is warned Meggy will bring trouble, but she refuses to listen; all she wants is for the rumours about John’s sordid past to be forgotten forever. But when a sudden death casts suspicion on Widow Lovie’s favourite son, the life she has so desperately tried to preserve threatens to fall apart.
Closely based on a sensational true crime, Three Times Buried is a sinister tale of torn loyalties, secrets, superstition and murder. |
'a poignant and thrilling tale of love and murder' - Amazon review
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'It’s dark, beautifully written, but also thoughtful and it stayed with me for days. That it’s based on real life and so expertly researched, makes it even more impressive. Recommended!'
- Goodreads review '... the overall impression is haunting.' - RjS, Goodreads review. |
'His story is as intriguing as it is bizarre, and if all history was presented this way, I would consume more of it.' - Goodreads
'So interesting, informative and eye opening, all presented in a readable and engaging manner. Altogether a wonderful read.' – Beauty and Lace |
Exposing Captain Starlight’s twisted life of crime and deceit.
Who was ‘Captain Starlight’? When a respectable public servant dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances, the authorities are baffled. Who really was the dead man? Was he an Irish nobleman fallen on hard times – or a conman, a forger, a serial impostor, a killer? As an investigation peels back the layers of deception, aliases and lies, a bizarre chain of events is revealed, exposing the deceased as a man guilty of a string of audacious crimes spanning decades – crimes including identity theft and murder. In The Killer's Game, Jane Smith has pieced together the scattered clues to the dead man's background, uncovering the true story of the life and crimes of the 19th-century enigma once known as Frank Pearson – or Captain Starlight. |
The Killer's Game is a re-release of the popular Captain Starlight: The Strange But True Story of a Bushranger, Impostor and Murderer.
‘I love this book! Incredibly well-researched, and beautifully written. This is one I'm going to recommend to my friends.’
– Calif Writer, Amazon. |
Learn more about Captain Starlight the man here
Ship of Death: the Tragedy of the 'Emigrant'
SHORTLISTED FOR THE FRANK BROEZE MEMORIAL MARITIME HISTORY 2021 BOOK PRIZE !
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‘I little thought we were about to proceed on so disastrous a voyage…’
When 276 poor British emigrants sail away from Plymouth on the ship Emigrant in April 1850, seeking a better life in Australia, they know nothing of the ordeal that lies ahead. For four terrible months at sea they endure cramped and squalid conditions, insufferable heat, bitter cold … and a mounting death toll from the dreaded disease that rages through the ship: typhus. When the Emigrant arrives in Moreton Bay, the nightmare continues. For three long months in quarantine at Stradbroke Island, the immigrants’ hopes are raised and dashed, and raised and dashed again. Impeccably researched and poignantly told, Ship of Death unfurls the true saga of the ill-fated voyage, quarantine and aftermath. For the first time, this stunning book reveals the human stories of some key players in the drama – their backgrounds, their suffering, and their fates – and in doing so, brings to life a remarkable journey common to many of Australia’s early settlers. Their stories are tales of hardship, resilience, courage and despair. |
'Jane Smith, excellent historian that she is ... has added a rich vein to our understanding of the personal, individual legends of early white settlement in Queensland.' - Kerry O'Brien
A vivid, beautifully researched account of a human tragedy told with compassion and an eye for novelistic detail.' - Amazon reviewer
Other options for purchasing:
FOR CHILDREN
'What an absolute delight! ... As a teacher of young women for over 30 years, I recommend Carly Mills as a heroic character who will inspire young readers, especially girls like Carly, to be curious and ready for action at a moment’s notice.'
Kathi-Ann Hill, English and Japanese teacher |
'An exciting, easy-to-read, action-packed fictional romp through Australian bushranging history' – Sandy Fussell, Sunday Telegraph
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'... an engaging, at times riveting, study of six of Australia’s more infamous bushrangers.'
– Russ Merrin, Magpies Magazine |
Generations of Care: St Vincent's Private Hospital Toowoomba 1922-2022
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In the hundred years since its official opening on 19 November 1922, St Vincent's Private Hospital Toowoomba has grown from a single building into a large acute-care medical, surgical and maternity hospital. This pictorial history provides wonderful snapshots of special moments and milestones throughout the long history of one of Toowoomba's best-loved institutions.
Written by Jane Smith for St Vincent's Private Hospital Toowoomba, printed by Cracker Print and Paper. To buy, contact St Vincent's Private Hospital Toowoomba, (07) 4690 4000 |