In 2016, I published my first biographical work with Allen & Unwin, The Convict’s Daughter, it is:
“A dramatic and fast-paced biography of a currency lass born to convicts who gained their freedom and then their fortune in 1840s Sydney. At the age of 15 Mary Ann Gill slipped out her bedroom window to elope with a gentleman settler, but when her father discovered his daughter’s disappearance he pursued the couple and fired two pistols at his daughter’s suitor, unleashing a national scandal. One wet autumn evening in 1848, fifteen-year-old Mary Ann Gill stole out of a bedroom window in her father’s Sydney hotel and took a coach to a local racecourse. There she was to elope with James Butler Kinchela, wayward son of the former Attorney-General. Her enraged father pursued them on horseback and fired two pistols at his daughter’s suitor, narrowly avoiding killing him.
What followed was Australia’s most scandalous abduction trial of the era, as well as an extraordinary story of adventure and misadventure, both in Australia and abroad. Through humiliation, heartache, bankruptcy and betrayal, Mary Ann hung on to James’ promise to marry her.”
The Convict’s Daughter may be purchased at Amazon, The Museums of History NSW and more.
I discussed some of the book’s method and background for the Australian Women’s History Network, presenting my thoughts in ‘The Convict’s Daughter: Speculations on Biography’. In 2018 also surmised my ideas on speculative biography for the Australia Centre for Public History’s ‘History Bytes’ series”
The book was widely and generously reviewed across academic and non-academic journals. Those who wrote on The Convict’s Daughter included:
Charlotte MacDonald, Women’s History Review, 26:6, 1043-1044, August 2017.
‘Kellie Moss, The Convict’s Daughter, Australian Historical Studies, 48:2, 313- 314. [“Kiera Lindsey offers an innovative addition to the historical writings on the period…. As well as providing us with a new and diverse perspective on Australia’s development, the main value of The Convict’s Daughter is its unique ability to appeal to a new type of reader. By transcending the traditional definitions that place written works within a specific genre, the book appeals to both readers of fiction and histories alike.”]
Bettina Bradbury, ‘The Convict’s Daughter’, law & history, 2017 4:1, 178 – 181.
Meg Foster, ‘Another way to enter the past’, History Australia, 13:4, 2016. [“”Lindsay tells the story of Mary Ann Gill, the daughter of enterprising, emancipist parents, with conviction, drama and flair…The Convict’s Daughter brings notions of character, pride, despair and hope to the fore and situates these as historical forces that drove people to act. Informed imagination brings the contingency of the past back to life. A perceived slight, an unfortunate encounter in the street, poor timing and personality clashes all informed the course of history.”]
Leila McKinnon, Australian Women’s Weekly, August 2016. [“Kiera Lindsey takes the facts of this story of her great, great, great-aunt, places them in the turbulent politics of the time, and fleshes them out with a decent but fair dose of imagination. Like her rebellious ancestor, she flouts convention with flair.”]
Jenni Diski, ‘5 Books in 5 minutes’, Perth Now, Sunday Times, 15 July 2016.
Tim Hilferty, SA Weekend, Adelaide Advertiser, 15 July 2016, 36.
Vanessa Dennis, Overnight ABC: Trevor Chappell, 12 June 2016.
Babette Smith, ‘The Girl, her lover, her father and his outrage’, SMH, 4 June 2016. [“Lindsey’s achievement is to bring her heroine – and her father – vividly to life by supplementing biographical facts with background research, insight and a significant, well-judged injection of imagination.”]
Sophia Barnes, The Convict’s Daughter’, Australian Book Review, No., 382, June-July 2016.
Leigh Paatsch, ‘The Convict’s Daughter’, The City, Adelaide, 11 May 2016.
There are so many fascinating women in Australia’s past. Their stories are likely to be lost forever if we only rely upon historical documents. These stories are our stories and they deserve to be shared but we need to be ‘creative’ if we are going to bring them to life.”
Kiera Lindsey, in “Restoration Woman” adds fresh insight into the past’, University of South Australia, 2 May 2016.