Carol Baxter has written a work that captures the reader This is largely because of her skill as a narrative historian, her capacity to tell a good story.' - Gregory Melleuish, Australian Literary Review In 1829 at the Supreme Court in Sydney, the bewitching Jane New was sentenced to death. Her crime: shoplifting a bolt of printed French silk. But was she guilty? Many had their doubts. Although a legal technicality soon quashed Jane's sentence, the autocratic Governor Ralph Darling refused to set her free. Like bees to the honey pot, the gentlemen of Sydney swarmed to Jane's defence including barrister and political agitator William Charles Wentworth and Supreme Court Registrar John Stephen Jr, who were both vigorous and manipulative in their appeals to set her free. An Irresistible Temptation is set against the backdrop of a particularly divisive period in colonial New South Wales. Not only did the scandal titillate Sydney and its legal and political ramifications push the colony to the brink of a constitutional crisis, but it contributed to the savagery of Governor Darling's public vilification and bestowed upon Jane New a place in the annals of Australian colonial histo
- ISBN10 6612090731
- ISBN13 9786612090738
- Publish Date 1 November 2006
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 8 December 2010
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Allen & Unwin Australia
- Format eBook
- Pages 432
- Language English