Van Diemen's Land

The acclaimed history of colonial TasmaniaA brilliant book and a must-read for anyone interested in how land shapes people Tim FlanneryAlmost half of the convicts who came to Australia came to Van Diemens 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 Diemens Land.With a foreword by Richard FlanaganThe most significant colonial history since The Fatal Shore. In re-imagining Australias past, it invents a new future. Richard FlanaganVan Diemens 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 Diemens Land is a triumph. The Sydney Morning Herald