Just Tassie Books

On 12 October 1973 the Blythe Star left Hobart for King Island with a cargo of fertiliser and beer. Fourteen hours later it sank without warning. Its crew of ten made it into a life raft, destined to drift for eight days around southern Tasmania.

The extraordinary story of a woman's journey from convict maid in Campbell Town to prosperity, status and wealth on the other side of the world.

A softcover reprint of the classic history of the early European settlers along the East Coast of Tasmania, by Lois Nyman.

Her husband was controversial. He was in the press, in the courts and in prison. Her husband was charismatic, voluble and irrepressible. He survived shipwreck, ruin and slander. Her husband was an entrepreneur, industrialist and pioneer. We continue to drink his beer; we still attend his theatre. His legacy is concrete. His place in history is secure.

But this is not his story, but the imagined story of his wife, Sophia Degraves.