TRUE PATRIOTS ALL Or New From Early Australia As Told In A Collection Of Broadsides Murders & Executions, Piracies & Mutinies, Shipwrecks, Terrors of Transportation, Villainies of all Kinds

Hardback. "Atrocious piracy - calamitous shipwreck - unparalleled suffering - total loss by fire - horrid murder - massacre" - these phrases, or others like them, might well be seen on the newspaper hoardings of today. They are, indeed, newspaper headlines of a sort, but they belong to the years between 1785 and 1855 - the period in Australia's development covered by the author. They were the headings for broadsides, sheets of paper (printed on one side only) that were hawked round the streets by chapmen, ballad-singers, or patterers and were the means of distributing the news to the people. Broadsides collected by the author for this fascinating book include tales of their adventures written by marooned seamen, accounts of murders and executions, verses such as "The Convict's Tour to Hell, by Frank the Poet" and "The London Convict Maid", descriptions of remarkable events and phenomena, proclamations and government notices. The book, therefore, includes many rare and unique items of Australiana and presents an absorbing and extraordinarily vivid picture of life in the early rough and raw days of settlement in Australia, told in the quaint language of the period, and the material gains in vividness from the manner of its presentation. Thirty-two of the rare broadsides are printed in full-page facsimile. Others, by means of extremely skilful type-setting, have been reprinted in substantially the same form as that in which they first appeared, and some are decorated with facsimile portions from the originals. In addition rare and important chap-books and pamphlets have been reprinted. With Frontis. Illus. + Afterword. 280pp. 4to h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg+ in Fair only dw. which has lge pieces missing from fr. and back covers (see image). A fairly heavy book which will require additional postage.