Cirrus@Austlit

'A century ago, grim vessels lay at anchor in Hobson's Bay. They were the notorious hulks packed with criminals for whom the gaols could find no room, floating hells crammed with human misery. Yet on board one of them was a young man, who, under happier circumstances, might have been successful and even famous. This is the tragic story of Owen Suffolk, victim of circumstance and prey to his own weakness, who left posterity in his debt by writing an autobiography which showed what life meant to a convict. After many years of penal servitude he became, ironically enough, a contributor to the exclusive English 'Gentleman's Magazine''.(Publisher's blurb p. 29)