This is the story of the greatest escape artist of Australia's convict era - the legend of Moondyne Joe. "They'll not take my freedom away!" These are the words of Moondyne Joe, the beloved scoundrel and expert bushman of early Australian convict history. There wasn't a cell built that could contain him, and Joe often led the troopers on wild chases through the Moondyne Hills. This is the story of a colourful Australian legend from the award-winning team of Mark Greenwood and Frané Lessac.

Moondyne Joe was colonial Australia's ultimate escape artist. His daring and repeated breakouts drove the Governor to build him a special cell. And when Moondyne Joe escaped again, he drove the Governor mad. Moondyne Joe himself died a pauper in Fremantle Lunatic Asylum but not before he gained notoriety as a lawbreaker, the husband of a brothel madam, a bushman who befriended local Indigenous people, and as a folk hero who championed the underdog. Written by John Kinsella, one of Australia's best known poets, and Niall Lucy, a caustic and irreverent social commentator, this book is an anarchic and playful examination of an elusive man and the harsh convict system he resisted.

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‘It’s a good story, Samuel. You’re a piece of living history.’ Oxford 1863: Young Samuel Speed sets a barley stack alight in the hope it will earn him a bed in prison for the night. He wants nothing more than a morsel of food in his belly and a warm place to sleep off the streets. What he receives is a sentence of seven years’ servitude, to be served half a world away in the penal colony of Fremantle, Western Australia. When Samuel boards the transport ship Belgravia, he is stripped of his clothing and even his name, and given regulations of when to rise, eat, clean and sleep. On arrival at Fremantle Prison, hard labour is added to the mix and he wonders if life can get any worse. The only solace he finds is a love of reading, which allows the likes of Tom Sawyer and Oliver Twist to become his lifelong friends. Samuel is granted a ticket of leave in 1867 and full freedom in 1871, but what sort of life can a man forge for himself in the colony, with no skills, no money and no family? Will it be the beginning of the life he has always dreamed of, or do some sentences truly never end? A colourful recreation of the life and times of the last known convict to be sent to Australia, The Last Convict is a moving study of old age and loneliness, as one social outcast finds meaning in his impoverished life through the power of literature. Meticulously researched and brilliantly woven into an engaging fictional account, it is an unforgettable story by an award-winning writer and historian. 'A story of hardship and privation, alongside high adventure, a fresh start in the colonies, and the protagonist's enduring solace in discovering the delights of literature. A ripping yarn.' The Age