The Convict Ellen Harper

Ellen had been brought up by a strict father and followed the faith of the Anglican Church. When she found a little freedom, she became slightly rebellious, being caught up in petty crime. She defied her father and married James Evans and ended up on a boat to Van Diemen’s Land with their young son Jimmie.
Throughout her life, she had been conflicted between her religious beliefs and the “new rules” of colonial Van Diemen’s Land. When things went wrong for her, she believed God was punishing her, and made decisions which caused further misfortune.
When Ellen arrived in Van Diemen’s Land, she had her son taken from her and placed in the Queens’s Orphan School in Hobart and she was assigned to an abusive property owner who lived in the Northern Midlands, one hundred and twenty miles from her son. To cope with her life, Ellen discovered and became addicted to alcohol with which she struggled for the rest of her life.
The story is set predominantly in Campbell Town in the midlands of Tasmania.
There is a location in Campbell Town on the southern side of the Elizabeth River which the locals have named Tragedy Hill, where one of her sons and her five-year-old granddaughter were murdered with rat poison.
Even though Ellen turned to alcohol to get her through life, she did have a lot of inner strength which she was able to draw on when needed.
The book delves into the politics of the 1850's with anti-transportation activists trying to stop convicts arriving in the colony, as well as the life and deprivations suffered by the convicts, whether still serving or having received their pardon.
During her life, Ellen grieved the loss of four husbands, and buried four of her eight children.