by Barbara Sumner
Publisher: Pantera Press, 2024
Publisher’s Blurb
A story of enduring love and friendship, and bold wild women who refuse the dictates of their times.
London 1833: The cast-out child of an aristocratic mother, Hannah ‘Birdie’ Bird is a laundry maid with a hidden past and a suspicion that the wealthy family she serves is hers.
Longing for beauty and liberation, Birdie risks everything to change her circumstances. She falls into love and crime, committing an audacious heist. When she is betrayed, she finds herself swept into a wave of female convicts, transported to the ends of her known world.
The journey to the early Australian settlement drives the women to deepest despair. Birdie finds wonder in even this darkest hour, and forms deep bonds with her fellow prisoners. But greater than even the trials onboard the ship is the fear of what awaits them in Sydney Cove.
What chance does Birdie have of beating the odds? Can she fight her way to freedom?
Drawn from the rarely celebrated true stories of female convicts, this striking debut vividly evokes a far-off time.
Review
by Margaret Walsh
Hannah “Birdie” Bird is a young woman with a hidden past and a traumatic future. The cast-off child of an aristocratic mother, Birdie works for a family that may be her own flesh and blood. The story opens in London in 1833 and ends in Sydney. Convicted of the crime of theft, Birdie is sentenced to transportation.
The book charts Birdie’s progress from beleaguered maid to convict to a life of her own.
The characters are robust and well-drawn. Birdie stands out as a young woman of courage and determination. Even the supporting characters feel very real. Catherine, Sandrine, Victoria, Philippe all had me invested in their stories.
I have one quibble. To me, it is not crime fiction. There are crimes, yes, but no crime to be solved that dominates the storyline. This is, first and foremost, an historical novel. Richly detailed and well researched, but not a crime novel. Thankfully, I enjoy historical fiction as much as I do crime fiction, so the book was still a very satisfying read for me.
The Gallows Bird is Barbara Sumner’s debut novel. It is powerful and sweeping as it follows Birdie through her life. The sections of the book set on the convict ship are so evocative of the era that you can almost smell the salt spray and feel the motion of the ship. The scenes set in Sydney are raw, gritty, and almost nauseating in their intensity.
A few people may find the slang used a little confusing, but Barbara Sumner has provided an excellent glossary at the end. All the words are of the correct vintage, which is good to see.
Epic is a word that is often overused in book descriptions, but it is the best word to describe this book. Highly recommended.