The Ballad of Desmond Kale

In early nineteenth-century Botany Bay, ballads and gossip circulate about Desmond Kale, an Irish rebel convict who has slipped away into the country beyond the colony's limits, taking with him a famous merino flock stolen from a Spanish grandee in the wars against Napoleon. The parson and magistrate Matthew Stanton, a sheep breeder himself and fond of the lash, hunts him relentlessly, while Kate, Kale's daughter, together with Tom Rankine, the man she loves, and a circle of allies, try to outwit church and state. The discovery that fine wool grows in New South Wales better than anywhere else stirs greed and ambition. The story travels from the bush past Parramatta to the British Parliament, Yorkshire's mills, Spain and the Southern Ocean.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia, United Kingdom, early 19th century

First published

2005

Author's age

64 when first published

ISBN

9781741661149 (Vintage, Australia)

More

Wikidata