True Girt
The Unauthorised History of Australia Volume 2
-
-
4.1 • 40 Ratings
-
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
In this side-splitting sequel to his best-selling history, David Hunt takes us to the Australian frontier. This was the Wild South, home to hardy pioneers, gun-slinging bushrangers, directionally challenged explorers, nervous indigenous people, Caroline Chisholm and sheep. Lots of sheep.
First there was Girt. Now comes . . . True Girt
True Girt introduces Thomas Davey, the hard-drinking Tasmanian governor who invented the Blow My Skull cocktail, and Captain Moonlite, Australia's most famous LGBTI bushranger. Meet William Nicholson, the Melbourne hipster who gave Australia the steam-powered coffee roaster and the world the secret ballot. And say hello to Harry, the first camel used in Australian exploration, who shot dead his owner, the explorer John Horrocks.
Learn how Truganini's death inspired the Martian invasion of Earth. Discover the role of Hall and Oates in the Myall Creek Massacre. And be reminded why you should never ever smoke with the Wild Colonial Boy and Mad Dan Morgan.
If Manning Clark and Bill Bryson were left on a desert island with only one pen, they would write True Girt.
'An engaging, witty and utterly irreverent take on Australian history.' —Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project
'Astounding, gruesome and frequently hilarious, True Girt is riveting from beginning to end.' —Nick Earls
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Australian history is putty in the hands of David Hunt, who continues his whimsical romp through the nation’s past. Liberally sprinkled with footnotes, funny asides and anachronistic observations, the sequel to Girt brings an irreverent energy to historical nonfiction, portraying the country’s 19th century as a bustling circus of convicts, pioneers, explorers and statesmen. As erudite as it is witty, Hunt’s book proves its author’s assertion that “humour can be a candle for truth.”
Customer Reviews
Brilliant!
A lover of books and a lover of history not written like a history book. I'm more carpenter than literary scholar. Your books are brilliant and it feels like you wrote Girt and True Girt just for my enjoyment! Cheers!!
Aus history lover
This is the story of the expanding Australian frontier. This is written with the same humour as Girt, although the stories of Aboriginal dispossession give it an edgier tone. I loved all the bushranger stories - cannibal bushrangers, visually impaired bushrangers, cross-dressing bushrangers, LGBTI bushrangers (Captain Moonlite on the cover) and the Jewish bushranger gang that terrorised the Hunter Valley between 1839 and 1841, except on Saturdays.
Great yarn, rightly disturbing in parts.
Somewhat more challenging than Girt given the narrative moves mostly onshore where adversities and atrocities, many since white washed, amp up.
Made more poignant by reading during a coincident hiking trip to Tassie quickly followed by a holiday in FNQ.
Love the footnotes. Spoiler alert. Who knew Monash met Ned Kelly!