The Commonwealth of Thieves

In 1787, most of the British populace were overjoyed to see the transfer of over 1500 convicts, from the diseased, cold and dark prison hulks in Portsmouth and Plymouth, onto a fleet of eleven ships destined for the yet unsettled shores of New South Wales. The Commonwealth of Thieves, by Tom Keneally, relates the story of Captain Arthur Phillip, the commander of the fleet, and the men, women and children that comprised the prison population on board. The convicts were accompanied by a few marines and soldiers on a trip halfway around the world to another hemisphere to a place unlike any they had ever heard about. The author expertly makes the reader aware of how strange this must have seemed to both the prisoners, who were meant to start a colony, and to the indigenous tribes of the Eora people who had been on the continent of Australia for over 60,000 years. Keneally tells the story of the first four years of the convicts’ struggle to find food, shelter and acceptance to a life so remote from Britain. He also relates the Aborigines’ plight of being invaded by a foreign culture, its deadly diseases, and the inevitable clash of civilizations. The reader will finish the book wanting to know what happened next.

-Emily Dickinson