By Allan Baillie
Printed by Penguin Books, 2005
This is another of the many children's book written by Allan Baillie which include the highly successful "Treasure Hunters", "Wreck", "Saving Abbie", "The China Coin", and "Little Brother" most of which have received awards for excellence . Of those that I have read my personal favorite is "The China Coin" which is based on the story of his own daughter, who is actually featured on the cover.

Chapter 2 page 7 "The Domestic"

This is a 26 page chapter on Mary Ann Bugg.

Allan Baillie says at the the beginning of this chapter "I learnt about Mary Ann and her part in the astonishing incident at the Cockatoo Island Prison in 1863 while chasing another book. This is based on her story. " This is the story of how Mary Ann helped Fred Ward escape from Cockatoo Island. It is writen in typical Allan Baillie style and is a well researched story giving a brief look at the life of Mary Ann. I would like to congratulate Allan on another look at the life of Thunderbolt and his wife, Mary Ann.

The book itself is "A streetwise collection from master story teller Allan Baillie spans centuries of cross-cultural relationships, civil wars and expeditions." Here is a journey that begins with a shuddering disaster in the Himalayas, and ends with an ill starred romance on Mars. In between are adventures down the river of Cambodia and Laos, battles with bulls in Australian country towns, encounters with French agents, freelance photography assignments, handbag-snatchers in Naples, thong-flingers in Rangoon, bread queues in Afganistan, and more.

I would highly recommend this and the many other books written by Allan Baillie as an inclusion in all school libraries as Allan has been an extremely successful author with all of his books well researched.