Marina Maxwell
  • Home
  • MMMusings
  • Blogs
  • About Me
  • My Books
  • Book Reviews
  • FAMILY TALES

Reviews

Categories

All


I read and review both historical fiction and non-fiction, but also enjoy biographies, crime and some contemporary fiction.
​ 

Please note that unless stated that I have received these books directly from the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review, I either purchase my own copies or source them from my local library service. 

​Links to Amazon, Book Depository or Dymocks Australia are only for the reader's reference.
(Due to some poor experiences recently with Booktopia, from 2023 I will no longer link to them.)

My reviews for Historical Novels Review, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society, can be found online here
​

Mary Ann and Captain Piper

13/8/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
​
​Point Piper sits on Sydney Harbour and is considered to be Australia’s most exclusive suburb. It is named after Captain John Piper, a Scots-born military officer who became a prominent public servant and landowner in New South Wales.

In 1805 while serving as Commandant of Norfolk Island and aged thirty-one he began an affair with bare-footed fourteen-year-old Mary Ann Sheers, the daughter of convicts. This is their story.

Creative non-fiction can be a difficult genre to read (and review). In this case, it will depend on the extent of the reader’s prior knowledge about the early days of Australia’s colonial history as to how one will come to appreciate this work that is literally jam-packed with everybody who was anybody in early 19th Century Sydney - the Macarthurs, Macquarie, William Bligh, the Wentworths, Redfern, Foveaux, Marsden, etc. - the list is endless. 

While the research is meticulous, in some ways it is so lavish and detailed that it overwhelms and is dangerously close to an “info dump”. It is occasionally broken up with fictional spoken narrative - some of it mundane or bafflingly inconsequential - as well as extracts from real letters and documents. There are also contemporary images, including portraits, paintings and sketches.

Basically, if one likes their books to share inner emotions or demonstrate actions in the narrative, i.e. the writerly rule of “show, don’t tell”, then this one fails as there is just way too much telling. On the other hand, if you want a chronological history lesson about these early Australian colonialists and are not bothered about digging deep into their characters or what made them tick, then it succeeds and it will make an excellent reference source.

Piper’s charm, affability and failings do find some expression, although as a younger man he also exhibited a typical Regency cad attitude, having several relationships with girls that today would be considered criminal due to their young age and with whom he fathered a number of illegitimate children. It was not unusual for the time and many of Australia's founding families have a similar background so this is an honest portrayal of  history. 

Yet somehow Piper formed a life-long bond with one of his teenaged conquests, Mary Ann, who had fourteen pregnancies with him through to her forties, most before they finally married. She buried a number of those children and lost many other individuals who were close to her. She may have come from humble convict beginnings and learned how to present herself and negotiate the challenges of society, eventually managing to keep Piper on the straight and narrow, but she remains placid and elusive and we never get a really solid grasp of how - or why - their marriage succeeded in spite of the odds.

  
Three stars
​

Booktopia
 
amazon.com

amazon.co.uk



0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    See
    Historical Novel Society
    ​
    for my reviews of historical fiction
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • MMMusings
  • Blogs
  • About Me
  • My Books
  • Book Reviews
  • FAMILY TALES