'The Convict's Daughter might be called "the new history" – highly readable, in fact, a compelling page-turner, but resting on solid scholarship. Subtitled The Scandal that Shocked a Colony, it tells the story of 15-year-old Mary Ann Gill, who eloped with the man of her dreams, James Kinchela. He had all the characteristics of a colonial Mr Rochester: well-born, tall, dark and handsome with the added attraction of wordly experience. Just the kind of gentlemen who would fascinate a teenage girl. ...'