This Beauteous,
Wicked Place: Letters and Journals of John Grant, Gentleman Convict
Edited by
Yvonne Cramer
John Grant
[b.1776] gentleman and convict was transported to New South Wales in 1803.
His letters and journals provide a rare and fascinating glimpse of life
in the colony through the eyes of an exile. Acquainted with many prominent
colonists, Grant's commentary on social and political matters captures
the intrigues and complexities of the time. A man of conscience, his experiences
of injustice made him an outspoken critic of the colonial authorities
and system of justice.
Yvonne Cramer
introduces this valuable chronicle of early Australian society, providing
pertinent historical background to the people and events portrayed. A
portion of Grant's original journal was written in code, presumably to
keep prying eyes from his often scathing and gossipy accounts. Through
her meticulous work, Cramer has decoded Grant's secret language, making
his thoughts and impressions fully available for the first time.
This Beauteous,
Wicked Place is illustrated with images from the National Library
of Australia's Pictorial Collection.
A powerful
voice in the early nineteenth century, the words of John Grant retain
their potency almost two centuries later.
Information
on author:
Yvonne Cramer
is a researcher, broadcaster and writer who trained with the Melbourne
Herald and with the Australian Broadcasting Commission television
service in Victoria.
Her first
marriage, to an RAF officer, took her back to England and to a life of
travel in Europe, before she returned home to Australia with her three
sons in 1973. She joined the Seven Network in Canberra, producing and
presenting a women's program for two years before re-joining the ABC where
she researched, produced and presented a local current affairs program
for six years.
A move to
Melbourne saw Yvonne establish a Public Affairs department for the Victorian
Health Commission before moving to advise on public affairs with the Victorian
Arts Centre, the Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands and the
New South Wales Health Department in Sydney.
Returning
to Canberra, Yvonne provided advice on media liaison and management to
the Anglican Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn during the debate on the
ordination of women as priests and simultaneously provided a research
consultancy to the ABC program 'Compass' at their Gore Hill studios in
Sydney.
In 1994 she
was retained by the National Library of Australia to compile an anthology
of letters between friends, to be guest edited by noted Sydney poet Elizabeth
Riddell. Entitled With Fond Regards, that work was the genesis
for the publication This Beauteous Wicked Place.
Yvonne now
works as a freelance researcher and media and public affairs consultant
with a number of national and local institutions and organisations.
ISBN 0 642
10702 5
2000, pb, 230 x 190 mm, b&w and colour illus.

Last
updated 11 September 2000
|