Tales of Old Tasmania

Coultman Smith, whose great-grandfather Cocky Dean was one of the most colourful early settlers, has gathered together a fine collection of rumbustious tales about those early days of the penal settlement. 

He writes of the cannibal convict Pearce, who preferred killing his companion to killing a wild bird because ‘human flesh was by far preferable’; he tells of Howe, the bushranger who wore the skins of kangaroos and kept, in his isolation, a diary of his dreams; and he describes the extra-ordinary life of Jorgen Jorgenson, who once declared himself King of Iceland, who later was transported to Van Diemen’s Land, and who spilled a million words in prolific writings during his terms of imprisonment.