A Rum Story

The Adventures of Joseph Holt Thirteen Years in New South Wales (1800-12)

by Joseph Holt

Edited by Peter O’Shaughnessy

Kangaroo Press, 1988, [First Edition], ISBN 0864171900, black and white photographic plates, black and white photographic frontispiece, hardcover, dustjacket

Near Fine Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, minor rubbing and bumping to edges and covers, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows minor edge and shelf wear with minor rubbing to edges and corners (see photographs)

“One of the unsung pioneers of Australia, General Joseph Holt, the legendary hero of the ’98 rebellion in Wicklow, Ireland, arrived in 1800 in New South Wales as a political prisoner.
His career in the colony was constantly dogged by suspicions that he was likely to lead an Irish revolt; for indeed his reputation as a military leader was formidable.  The truth seems to have been that he was only too ready to steer clear of trouble and to behave as a respectable and prosperous citizen.
Pardoned by Lachlan Macquarie, Holt left Sydney in December, 1812 and, after having been shipwrecked on the Falkland Islands, eventually reached Ireland in March, 1814.  There he wrote down the story of his adventurous life, a story which has never before been published in the form in which he wrote it, and which gives us an extraordinarily vivid and new insight not such events as the ‘Vinegar Hill’ revolt and the ‘Rum Rebellion’.”