History Without Tears: Colin Free's Bay of Shadows

Abstract

Colin Free, Bay of Shadows. Sydney: Methuen Australia, 1980. S11.95 380 pp.

Bay of Shadows is a sequel to Vinegar Hill (1978), both books being rattling good, fast-moving novels set in the early days of His Majesty's Penal Colony in New South Wales. Well researched and well written, with colourful characterisation, they would make good Australian films of a type that would painlessly teach us our history.