The Gallows Bird
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley May 4, 2024
Author Barbara Sumner
Distributor: Pantera Press
ISBN: 9780645818055
Publisher: Pantera Press
Release Date: May 2024
Website: https://www.panterapress.com.au
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Barbara Sumner, in her first fiction novel The Gallows Bird, celebrates the lives of so many women placed in service at a young age, some to accept their lot in life, others like Hannah Bird, with a yearning for a better future; with ideas above their station in life.
Hannah Bird could read and write, as well as speak French, as her beloved mother had taught her from a young age; skills which in so many ways saw her yearn for a better life other than that of the under laundry maid in a household she became to believe was that of her outcast, high born mother’s family.
Her passion for silk, and her risk taking, saw her become involved in a daring robbery, one in which a man died. Arrested, she faced the gallows but luck was on her side the day she was sentenced to transportation to Australia.
It is 1833 and Hannah known as ‘Birdie’ is being transported to the ship along with a number of other women she had become familiar with during her time in prison. They leave in harrowing circumstances, but at the last minute a group of men is boarded, filthy, bedraggled and beaten. Amongst the men is Joe, the man who had enticed her into the robbery, the man she felt a love for, a man also spared the gallows.
As the voyage to Australia unfolds, Barbara Sumner has captured the horror, acceptance, devastation and degradation of the women as they learn to trust each other, make the most of the little they have and survive the unthinkable. Birdie forms a friendship with a French Priest Philippe, also travelling to Australia but as a free man, keeper of souls on the ship, doubter of his faith and that of God.
Strong and courageous they survive, only to face the unknown in a strange land that once again sees them face up to the ‘Mermaid’s Auction’; the brutal reality that they are simply women for sale to the highest bidder.
Is there any joy or happiness to be had in this strange new life, is something they all doubt, but believe there has to be better times ahead! When Birdie is asked her age for her marriage certificate she stops and thinks, finally remembering she is sixteen.
Seldom used as a storyline, the documented lives of the women sentenced to life in Australia for, in many cases, what would be considered as petty crimes, is a treasure trove of historic fact that converts into fascinating storytelling. For anyone who enjoys Historic Fiction based on historic fact, The Gallows Bird is a must read.