CONVICT DAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 63, 11 September 1937, Page 26

CONVICT DAYS

The convict days in New South "Wales and Tasmania have been dealt with by various authors with varying degrees of success by such writers as Helen Simpson, and in the last century, Marcus Clarke and D. Christie Murray. But a novelist who is deeply in sympathy with his subject and has given it excellent treatment is William Hay, an Australian, whose book, "The Mystery of Alfred Doubt," has been published by George Allen and Unwin. The title cannot be taken too literally, for the only mystery in the story is in the Hobart authorities' minds as to whether Mr. Alfred Doubt, an Irish politician who left his country under a cloud, should be included among the unhappy inmates of the penal settlement. Doubt's adventures as a settler, a fugitive with a band of Irish rebels, and in his romance with Rose Levening. the local Magistrate's. sister, make an interesting tale. The characters are all drawn with delicacy, and each Has a real being of his own. Especially for those who are interested in Australia and her history is this bt)ok a worthy contribution to the literature of the great continent, .