The Workhouse Boy is a captivating novel of great social and historical significance set in the turbulent times of the industrial revolution in Britain and then in early colonial Australia. The reader will be fascinated by the story of Richard Shawcross as he starts his life as a foundling in a London workhouse, and bravely follows his fate as a transported convict and an assigned servant in Van Diemen’s Land. It is a fictional work firmly based on important historical facts that reflect the slow advance of enlightened civilisation from the old world to the new. Richard’s adventurous struggles and continually changing fortunes reflect the true to life story of the early settlers in the new country of Australia during the exciting, and often difficult, times of the nineteenth century. This is a story where hope and faith eventually lead to success and happiness.

About the Author

Bob Mainwaring is Tasmanian born and bred. He has had a life long interest in early colonial history, especially of the first Australian settlements and the people who were the pioneers; both free and convict. He has studied the true to life conditions for the people of Britain during and after the turbulent Napoleonic Wars that lead up to the system of transportation to the colonies, and contrasts this with the better life experienced by the majority of the convicts in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land.