Van Diemen's Land

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The acclaimed history of colonial Tasmania 'A brilliant book and a must-read for anyone interested in how land shapes people' -Tim Flannery Almost half of the convicts who came to Australia came to Van Diemen's Land. There they found a land of bounty and a penal society, a kangaroo economy and a new way of life. In this multi-award-winning history of colonial Tasmania, James Boyce shows how the newcomers were changed by the natural world they encountered. Escaping authority, they soon settled away from the towns, dressing in kangaroo skin and living off the land. Behind the official attempt to create a Little England was another story of adaptation, in which the poor, the exiled and the criminal made a new home in a strange land. Inseparable from this was a growing war against Aboriginal Tasmanians, which became ever more extreme. This is their story, the story of Van Diemen's Land. With a foreword by Richard Flanagan 'The most significant colonial history since The Fatal Shore. In re-imagining Australia's past, it invents a new future.' -Richard Flanagan 'Van Diemen's Land is a fresh and sparkling account of the first generation of British settlement in Tasmania that also makes an important contribution to Australian colonial historiography.' -Henry Reynolds 'Boyce's Van Diemen's Land is a triumph.' -The Sydney Morning Herald

Author Bio

James Boyce is a multi-award-winning historian. His first book, Van Diemen's Land, was described by Richard Flanagan as 'the most significant colonial history since The Fatal Shore'. He is also the editor of Inga Clendinnen and the author of Losing Streak, Born Bad, Imperial Mud and 1835, which was The Age's 2012 Book of the Year.