Caroline Leakey, writing as Oliné Keese, published her first and only novel, The Broad Arrow, in 1859. It tells the story of Maida Gwynnham, a young middle-class woman lured into committing a forgery by her deceitful lover, Captain Norwell, and then wrongly convicted of infanticide. The novel’s title describes the arrow that was stamped onto government property, including the clothes worn by convict – a symbol of shame and incarceration. With its ‘fallen woman’ protagonist, its gothic undertones and its exploration of the social and moral implications of the penal system, this little-known novel gives an insight into a significant chapter of Australian history from a uniquely female perspective. In this new critical edition, editor Jenna Mead restores material that was cut when the novel was reissued in a radically abridged version in 1886, restoring for the first time in over a century the complete original text of Leakey’s important work.

Despite the revolutionary fervor sweeping the colonies in 1775, 13-year old Sam Nevens has no desire to fight. Outwardly, he is skeptical that the rebels can win. Deep within, he doubts his own bravery. Even after his best friend, Eamon, leaves to join a militia, Sam remains undecided about the war. But after being caught hiding his father's lumber from British ship agents, Sam awakes on a prison ship. Trying to make his way home, Sam is instead drawn closer and closer to the Revolution and its leaders, including Paul Revere, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington.

Author/illustrator Sam Manning has brought to life a period in history which makes this book valuable, but not simply because you will understand how the shipbuilding industry worked from the 1600s?1800s. Manning shows what governments were doing, why, and how it directly parallels the twentieth- and twenty-first century policies of nations to spend blood and treasure to ensure they can control the supply of natural resources for their national security. With 1600s Europe unable to supply the big tall masts needed for their navies, Great Britain established a policy of marking trees in New England which were specifically the Crown's, to be cut, processed, and shipped back to England. Without proper masts, the navy could not carry sails to propel their ships'much like the need for oil today.