Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady
Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady: the true tale of bushrangers Frederick Ward and Mary Ann Bugg was published by Allen & Unwin in 2011, also to critical acclaim. The backup documentation for this book was so extensive that only a brief bibliography was published in the book. Exhaustive analyses and annotated timelines were instead published on a Thunderbolt website.
The blurb and prologue, as well as some reviews, are shown below. To purchase a book, go to Orders.
In brief: Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady tells the true story of Frederick Ward, the "gentleman bushranger", and his lover, Mary Ann Bugg, who helped keep him safe from the troopers sent out to capture or kill him. Two intriguing characters, a fascinating true story - every authors dream! The backdrop to the story is the divisive period of the 1860s - the bushranging epidemic - when the rural working classes clashed with the recently-established state-run police force and chose to support the bushrangers as their voice against authority.
The blurb and prologue, as well as some reviews, are shown below. To purchase a book, go to Orders.
In brief: Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady tells the true story of Frederick Ward, the "gentleman bushranger", and his lover, Mary Ann Bugg, who helped keep him safe from the troopers sent out to capture or kill him. Two intriguing characters, a fascinating true story - every authors dream! The backdrop to the story is the divisive period of the 1860s - the bushranging epidemic - when the rural working classes clashed with the recently-established state-run police force and chose to support the bushrangers as their voice against authority.
Blurb
He was the gentleman bushranger ... she was the woman who rode with him. This is the true story of Captain Thunderbolt and his lady.
'Bail up!' demanded Captain Thunderbolt before he shouted the bar with the innkeeper's own profits. Driven into banditry by injustice, this colonial Robin Hood, magnificent horseman and skilled bushman was celebrated by his victims as vigourously as he was hunted by the law.
She was his chief lieutenant, his eyes and his ears. Intelligent and beautiful, Mary Ann Bugg dressed like a man, rode like a man, and helped keep Thunderbolt ahead of the troopers and trackers intent on pursuing him to his end. Until one day ....
Compelling and richly detailed, Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady has it all - action, drama, and two protagonists who defied social conventions for freedom. This is an unputdownable story of an extraordinary partnership and a fresh retelling of one of Australia's greatest bushranging stories.
'Bail up!' demanded Captain Thunderbolt before he shouted the bar with the innkeeper's own profits. Driven into banditry by injustice, this colonial Robin Hood, magnificent horseman and skilled bushman was celebrated by his victims as vigourously as he was hunted by the law.
She was his chief lieutenant, his eyes and his ears. Intelligent and beautiful, Mary Ann Bugg dressed like a man, rode like a man, and helped keep Thunderbolt ahead of the troopers and trackers intent on pursuing him to his end. Until one day ....
Compelling and richly detailed, Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady has it all - action, drama, and two protagonists who defied social conventions for freedom. This is an unputdownable story of an extraordinary partnership and a fresh retelling of one of Australia's greatest bushranging stories.
Prologue
They know, as soon as they see her.
Skirts billowing, she hastens along the baked earth road – not the dainty mince of a parasoled young lady but a boyish stride as if frustrated by the cumbersome layers of social constraint wrapped around her sturdy legs. Past humble cottages with children spilling out of doorways into gardens brilliant with colour. Past ramshackle inns with rum-swillers glued to wooden verandahs. Past church spires pointing triumphantly towards the heavens, each proclaiming that theirs alone is the true path to God’s rewards, and woe-betide any sinner who ignores His divine commands.
As she nears the town centre, her milky-brown countenance is a giveaway – not that she is any darker than the average sun-baked settler’s wife, but there is a look about her that hints at her Aboriginal heritage. Yet her broad, intelligent forehead reminds them that she is not simply an Aboriginal woman dressed to fit in, but one schooled to fit in – more educated, they all know, than most of the matrons ducking into shop doorways or the stockmen riding through town.
Her deep-set brown eyes flicker this way and that, then pause and focus on something: a moment of alert stillness as her mind seemingly gathers information. Then she glances away and her eyes flicker around again, all seeing, all knowing.
She slows her pace as she nears some gossiping women, dropping her gaze so they can see only her silky black hair confined in a demure bun – an appropriately obsequious pose. They don't realise that she is not submitting to their belief in their white superiority; rather she is hoping not to be recognised and preferring not to be snubbed, not that she really cares either way. More importantly, her dropped head hides her blank gaze as she listens to their conversations, as she tries to follow the various threads through the confusion of voices talking over each other. Any snippet could be useful.
She hasn’t fooled them. They know who she is: Captain Thunderbolt’s woman. She has so many nicknames: ‘Thunderbolt’s gin’, ‘Mrs Thunderbolt’, ‘Mrs Captain Ward’, although she likes to call herself ‘the Captain’s Lady’. Few know her birth name, Mary Ann Bugg, although they all know her role. She is the notorious Frederick Ward’s eyes and ears, the bushranger’s right-hand man, his wily tracker, his commissariat, his lover and the mother of his children. And she is here in their town, which means that Thunderbolt himself is nearby.
Not that he is likely to rob the town itself. He rarely does. He is craftier than that. Instead, he likes to know if the ‘traps’ are around, even in towns and villages with no police station of their own. The troopers might be passing through while carrying out their duties, and the last thing Thunderbolt wanted was an unexpected encounter with a policeman escorting a minor felon or searching for lost sheep.
They notice her slightly cocked nose, a sign of her impetuosity, and her large mouth and chin that warn of her boldness. And bold she undoubtedly is, to ride with a bushranger, to parade through their town as if entitled to be there.
Sometimes she tries to fool them by pretending to be a boy, stuffing her hair under a cabbage-tree hat and clothing her five-foot two-and-a-half-inch frame in shirt and trousers. But they know who she is, they know what she signifies – and they are afraid.
Skirts billowing, she hastens along the baked earth road – not the dainty mince of a parasoled young lady but a boyish stride as if frustrated by the cumbersome layers of social constraint wrapped around her sturdy legs. Past humble cottages with children spilling out of doorways into gardens brilliant with colour. Past ramshackle inns with rum-swillers glued to wooden verandahs. Past church spires pointing triumphantly towards the heavens, each proclaiming that theirs alone is the true path to God’s rewards, and woe-betide any sinner who ignores His divine commands.
As she nears the town centre, her milky-brown countenance is a giveaway – not that she is any darker than the average sun-baked settler’s wife, but there is a look about her that hints at her Aboriginal heritage. Yet her broad, intelligent forehead reminds them that she is not simply an Aboriginal woman dressed to fit in, but one schooled to fit in – more educated, they all know, than most of the matrons ducking into shop doorways or the stockmen riding through town.
Her deep-set brown eyes flicker this way and that, then pause and focus on something: a moment of alert stillness as her mind seemingly gathers information. Then she glances away and her eyes flicker around again, all seeing, all knowing.
She slows her pace as she nears some gossiping women, dropping her gaze so they can see only her silky black hair confined in a demure bun – an appropriately obsequious pose. They don't realise that she is not submitting to their belief in their white superiority; rather she is hoping not to be recognised and preferring not to be snubbed, not that she really cares either way. More importantly, her dropped head hides her blank gaze as she listens to their conversations, as she tries to follow the various threads through the confusion of voices talking over each other. Any snippet could be useful.
She hasn’t fooled them. They know who she is: Captain Thunderbolt’s woman. She has so many nicknames: ‘Thunderbolt’s gin’, ‘Mrs Thunderbolt’, ‘Mrs Captain Ward’, although she likes to call herself ‘the Captain’s Lady’. Few know her birth name, Mary Ann Bugg, although they all know her role. She is the notorious Frederick Ward’s eyes and ears, the bushranger’s right-hand man, his wily tracker, his commissariat, his lover and the mother of his children. And she is here in their town, which means that Thunderbolt himself is nearby.
Not that he is likely to rob the town itself. He rarely does. He is craftier than that. Instead, he likes to know if the ‘traps’ are around, even in towns and villages with no police station of their own. The troopers might be passing through while carrying out their duties, and the last thing Thunderbolt wanted was an unexpected encounter with a policeman escorting a minor felon or searching for lost sheep.
They notice her slightly cocked nose, a sign of her impetuosity, and her large mouth and chin that warn of her boldness. And bold she undoubtedly is, to ride with a bushranger, to parade through their town as if entitled to be there.
Sometimes she tries to fool them by pretending to be a boy, stuffing her hair under a cabbage-tree hat and clothing her five-foot two-and-a-half-inch frame in shirt and trousers. But they know who she is, they know what she signifies – and they are afraid.
Reviews
Carol Baxter is doing for Australian history what our athletes are doing for sport: making it exciting, interesting and world class ... This beautifully told story may change the way we see our history.
Good Reading - see full Review on Thunderbolt website
This compelling book by historian Carol Baxter may be read at several levels. It is a valuable contribution to colonial history. It is a dramatic retelling of the saga of Fred Ward, or Captain Thunderbolt ... But more than that, the author has used her genealogical skills to rescue from the records the almost forgotten story of Mary Ann Bugg ... Carol Baxter has written an excellent study of life on both the geographical and the racial frontier of colonial society.
Canberra Times
... a compelling story.
Sydney Morning Herald
Carol Baxter's book Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady is a detailed and enthralling biography of Thunderbolt and his "wife" Mary Ann Bugg.
Out of Shadows: A personal journal into the nature of STORY in various media
If you have a passion for Australian history, Carol Baxter ... has extensively researched this period of colonial development and written an engrossing account of the bushranger and the woman behind the man. Baxter's fresh insight into Aboriginal culture and their interaction with convicts and colonial government is fascinating ... This is the story of good crime fiction with action, slaughter, rough justice, robbery, betrayal and a couple who could ride like the wind and read the bush like no other.
Manly Daily
This beautifully told story may change the way we see our history.
Good Reading - see full Review on Thunderbolt website
What a well-written cracking read!
Emeritus Professor Bruce Kercher
... a great read ...
Marie-Claire
Baxter's book reads like a novel as she peels back layers of long unchallenged folk tales.
Newcastle Herald
Orders
Click here if you wish to order a book or check out prices and packages.
Good Reading - see full Review on Thunderbolt website
This compelling book by historian Carol Baxter may be read at several levels. It is a valuable contribution to colonial history. It is a dramatic retelling of the saga of Fred Ward, or Captain Thunderbolt ... But more than that, the author has used her genealogical skills to rescue from the records the almost forgotten story of Mary Ann Bugg ... Carol Baxter has written an excellent study of life on both the geographical and the racial frontier of colonial society.
Canberra Times
... a compelling story.
Sydney Morning Herald
Carol Baxter's book Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady is a detailed and enthralling biography of Thunderbolt and his "wife" Mary Ann Bugg.
Out of Shadows: A personal journal into the nature of STORY in various media
If you have a passion for Australian history, Carol Baxter ... has extensively researched this period of colonial development and written an engrossing account of the bushranger and the woman behind the man. Baxter's fresh insight into Aboriginal culture and their interaction with convicts and colonial government is fascinating ... This is the story of good crime fiction with action, slaughter, rough justice, robbery, betrayal and a couple who could ride like the wind and read the bush like no other.
Manly Daily
This beautifully told story may change the way we see our history.
Good Reading - see full Review on Thunderbolt website
What a well-written cracking read!
Emeritus Professor Bruce Kercher
... a great read ...
Marie-Claire
Baxter's book reads like a novel as she peels back layers of long unchallenged folk tales.
Newcastle Herald
Orders
Click here if you wish to order a book or check out prices and packages.