The Improbable Birth of Australia, 1st of 5 [audio 15min]

This week's"Book of the Week" is The Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia by the Booker Prize winning writer Thomas Keneally, abridged by Doreen Estall. In May 1787, a great convict flotilla set sail from England for the fringes of the known world. The prisoners — mostly petty thieves — and their guardians were expected to start a settlement in Botany Bay on the New South Wales coast. It was a gruelling 8-month voyage. Read by Jonathan Hyde.