num_pages: 400
description: The tenth child of Charles Dickens Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens known as Plorn had consistently proved unable 'to apply himself ' to school or life. So aged sixteen he is sent as his brother Alfred was before him to Australia. Plorn arrives in Melbourne in late 1868 carrying a terrible secret. He has never read a word of his father's work. He is sent out to a 2000-square-mile station in remotest New South Wales to learn to become a man and a gentleman stockman from the most diverse and toughest of companions. In the outback he becomes enmeshed with Paakantji colonists colonial-born ex-convicts ex-soldiers and very few women. Plorn unexpectedly encounters the same veneration of his father and familiarity with Dickens' work in Australia as was rampant in England. Against this backdrop and featuring cricket tournaments horse-racing bushrangers sheep droving shifty stock and station agents frontier wars and first encounters with Australian women Plorn meets extraordinary people and enjoys wonderful adventures as he works to prove himself. This is Tom Keneally in his most familiar terrain. Taking historical figures and events and reimagining them with verve compassion and humour. It is a triumph.
language: English
title: The Dickens Boy
publisher: Penguin Books Australia