South of Darkness

Publisher details

Author
John Marsden
Publisher
Pan Macmillan
Genre
Historical Fiction
Released
01 November, 2014

South of Darkness

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    Synopsis

    Thirteen-year-old Barnaby Fletch is a bag-and-bones orphan in London in the late 1700s.Barnaby lives on his wits and ill-gotten gains, on streets seething with the press of the throng and shadowed by sinister figures. Life is a precarious business.When he hears of a paradise on the other side of the world - a place called Botany Bay - he decides to commit a crime and get himself transported to a new life, a better life.To succeed, he must survive the trials of Newgate Prison, the stinking hull of a prison ship and the unknown terrors of a journey across the world.And Botany Bay is far from the paradise Barnaby has imagined. When his past and present suddenly collide, he is soon fleeing for his life - once again.A riveting story of courage, hope and extraordinary adventure.
    John Marsden
    About the author

    John Marsden

    John Marsden has written more than 40 books, mostly for teenagers and children, including Tomorrow When the War Began, So Much to Tell You, and Letters from the Inside. He has sold over five million books worldwide, and has won every major award in Australia for young people's fiction. South of Darkness, written for adults, won the Christina Stead Award for Best Novel of 2015. In August 2019, John's newest book, The Art of Growing Up, a non-fiction work about education and parenting, will be published. John's passionate interest in education led him to start two schools: Candlebark, on a vast forested estate near Romsey, Victoria, and Alice Miller, at Macedon, a Year 7-12 school with a particular emphasis on the creative arts. The two schools enrol 400 students in 2021.

    Books by John Marsden

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