The Fatal Shore, R Hughes

The Fatal Shore. A history of the transportation of convicts to Australia 1787–1868
Robert Hughes

The Fatal Shore follows convict transportation from the squalor of Georgian Britain and its obsessive fear of mob violence to the grim prison hulks that disgorged their human cargoes into the world’s most elaborate penal system of the time. Many of those who survived the sea journey were condemned to starvation, disease and brutality. This book describes Australia’s painful transition from prison camp to open society through private and official documents giving a complete account of how 160,000 men, women and children shipped off to suffer, to die or to succeed and go on to found a new nation. An epic tale told with immense energy and panache.

Hardback with dust jacket in excellent condition.
Front endpaper inscribed ‘J. S Christmas 86’

688 pages
2 sections of black and white photographs
162 mm x 242 mm (approx. 6.5 in x 9.5 in)
1987, Collins Harvill, London