Moonlite
The Tragic Love Story of Captain Moonlite and the Bloody End of the Bushrangers
A gay bushranger with a love of poetry and guns.
A grotesque hangman with a passion for flowers and gardening.
A broken young man desperate for love and respect.
These men – two of them lovers – are about to bring the era of
Australia’s outlaws to a torrid and bloody climax.
Moonlite is the true and epic story of George Scott, an Irish-born
preacher who becomes, along with Ned Kelly, one of the nation’s most
notorious and celebrated criminals.
Charismatic, intelligent and handsome, George Scott is unlike any other
bushranger. Born into a privileged life in famine-wracked Ireland,
Scott’s family loses its fortune and is forced to flee to New Zealand.
There, Scott joins the local militia and fights as a soldier against
the Maori in the brutal New Zealand wars.
After recovering from a series of serious gunshot wounds, he sails to
Australia and becomes a Lay Preacher, captivating churchgoers with his
fiery and inspiring sermons.
But Scott is also prone to bursts of madness. The local villagers back
in Ireland often whispered that a “wild drop” ran in the blood of the
Scott family. One night he dons a mask in a small country town, arms
himself with a gun and, dubbing himself Captain Moonlite, brazenly
robs a bank before staging one of the country’s most audacious
jailbreaks.
After falling in love with fellow prisoner James Nesbitt, a boyish
petty criminal desperately searching for a father figure, Scott finds
himself unable to shrug off his criminal past.
Pursued and harassed by the police, he stages a dramatic siege and
prepares for a final showdown with the law – and a macabre executioner
without a nose.
Meticulously researched and drawing on previously unpublished
material, Moonlite is a work of non-fiction that reads like a novel.
Told at a cracking pace, and based on many of the extensive letters
Scott wrote from his death cell, Moonlite is set amid the violent and
sexually-repressed era of Australia in the second half of the 19th
century.
With a cast of remarkable characters, it weaves together the
extraordinary lives of our bushrangers and the desperation of a young
nation eager to remove the stains of its convict past.
But most of all, Moonlite is a tragic love story.
For these are the dying days of the bushrangers and Captain Moonlite
is about to make his last stand.
About the author
Garry Linnell is one of Australia’s most experienced journalists. Born and raised in Geelong, he has won several awards for his writing, including a Walkley for best feature writing. He has been editor-in-chief of The Bulletin, editor of The Daily Telegraph, director of news and current affairs for the Nine Network and editorial director of Fairfax. He spent four years as co-host of the Breakfast Show on 2UE and is also the author of four previous books - ‘Football Ltd: The inside story of the AFL’; ‘Raelene: sometimes beaten, never conquered’; ‘Playing God: The rise and fall of Gary Ablett’ and the bestselling 'Buckley's Chance'.
Discover more
Garry Linnell reveals how a childhood fascination led to his exploration of the life, and love, of an oft-forgotten bushranger.
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