Bone and Beauty the Ribbon Boys’ Rebellion by Jeanette M. Thompson

Bone and Beauty the Ribbon Boys’ Rebellion by Jeanette M. Thompson

A well-researched piece of oft-forgotten Australian history, crafted into a very readable and digestible narrative non-fiction. In 1830, an Irish group of rebels, the Ribbon Boys, liberate eighty convicts from Bathurst farms and lead them inland to freedom. Needless to say, Governor Darling is not happy and several battles follow. But who ‘wins’? An exposé of the involvement of Irish secret societies and the scale of oppression and corruption on the part of the authorities.