50 Years Hard: The Story of Pentridge Gaol, Melbourne, from 1850 to 1900 by Denton Prout and Fred Feely

Book Description

Secondhand. Fair condition. Ex library copy with no external stickers. Date due slip stuck to inside page. Stamps and writing on endpages. Stains from old sticky tape. Foxing to some pages. Dust jacket is in good condition, enclosed in a protector.

In sullen majesty, Pentridge Gaol glowers at the traffic of suburban Melbourne from behind incongruous flower beds. Where it stands is dark and bloody ground.

For more than a century, it has been the battlefield of an undeclared war. On one side, the law, whose authority was once wielded as savagely as the cat o'nine tails. On the other, the prisoners, whose weapons were cunning, intrigue and sometimes sudden desperate violence.

Out of the first fifty years of this battle, the authors have created a fascinating account of escapes, mortal combats, vicious tyrants, last-minute reprieves and the myriad dramatic and pathetic details of life behind the grim stone walls. (book flap)