The Australia's Trail-Blazing First Novelist: John Lang: Australia's first novelist

(Paperback)

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'Writer, journalist, barrister, larrikin'

Who was the first Australian novelist

John Lang, born in a Parramatta pub in 1816 with the convict stain upon him, was a singular character. The first native-born person to have a novel published, he was also a newspaperman, a classical scholar and translator, barrister, celebrity, jailbird enigma. He was hugely energetic, capable and original, but he also had his demons.

A larrikin polymath who refused to be bound by convention, Lang didnt just want his allotted portion he wanted all of it. He got a lot of it, too, but not the chalice of immortality.

Lang was a serial pioneer. In literature, he also wrote the first detective novel in English, the first convict-system satire, the first Indian travelogue by an Australian, and he created the template for the bush novel. In journalism, he was the first Australian to launch and run a newspaper overseas. And in law, he was the only barrister to ever defeat the mighty East India Company in an Indian courtroom.

So why have we never heard of him

This long-overdue biography explores answers to this revealing question as it tracks Langs rise from those humble beginnings to fortune and fleeting fame. Author Sean Doyle tells the riveting story of Langs remarkable life and times across three continents in the age of Empire, when the modern world was young

Author Bio

After completing a History and Literature (Hons) degree at Sydney University, Sean Doyle took to the Asian, especially Indian, road. His travels over the years have produced two Indian memoirs: Beyond Snake Mountain: A journey in Rajasthan and Night Train to Varanasi: India with my daughter. Formerly an English-language teacher and a travel journalist, Sean is now a book editor. He lives in Northern NSW, where he loves to bodysurf and amuse his granddaughter.