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The Potato Factory #1

The Potato Factory

bryce courtenay

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Ikey Solomon is very successful indeed, in the art of thieving. Ikey's partner in crime is his mistress, the forthright Mary Abacus, until misfortune befalls them. They are parted and each must make the harsh journey from 19th century London to Van Diemens Land. In the backstreets and dives of Hobart Town, Mary learns the art of brewing and builds The Potato Factory, where she plans a new future. But her ambitions are threatened by Ikey's wife, Hannah, her old enemy. The two women raise their separate families. As each woman sets out to destroy the other, the families are brought to the edge of disaster.

852 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1995
Series
The Potato Factory

This edition

Format
852 pages, Paperback
Published
August 31, 1998 by Penguin Books Australia Ltd.
ISBN
9780140273656
ASIN
0140273654
Language
English

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About the author

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bryce courtenay

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Arthur Bryce Courtenay, AM was a South African-Australian advertising director and novelist. He is one of Australia's best-selling authors, notable for his book The Power of One.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
27(27%)
4 stars
41(41%)
3 stars
32(32%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
ssssaturna
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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A fantastic 'factional" read. Based on a mountain of research, Courtney employs his great story telling to weave the reader into the lives of those unfortunates.

I was moved by some of the harsh realities of those times, but also found myself chuckling at many of the small side takes.

A warning that this was not an easy time for women in the lower levels of society. So there are instances of a very unsavoury nature that some may find hard to read.
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Eksevis
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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I loved this book! It is Historical fiction at its best. The main character, Ikey Solomon,is a quirky self-righteous scoundrel who makes his money through devious means. Using terrific writing and characterization the Australian author had me rooting for Ikey as he is "transported" from England to be incarcerated in a penal colony in Australia. This is a book I would really suggest you listen to if possible. I finished this one and immediately downloaded Tommo and Hawk, the second book of the trilogy.
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flyinggumm
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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I really enjoyed this book. It is long and the subject is heavy but it is an amazing read.

The story is about Ikey Solomon (who the character Fagin from Oliver Twist was based on) and his fictional mistress Mary Abacus. Ikey is a fencer and uses his army of pickpocket children to get stolen goods to send to international markets. His mistress Mary Abacus has a quick mind for business and together they open a high class brothel. When Ikey's wife Hannah finds out about Mary she is furious and sets him up. Ikey flees England and Mary is sent to Australia. Each makes a new start in a new land.

It was a fascinating read about the times of Dickens in England. I also found the story about transportation to Australia and what women faced when they arrived in Van Dieman's land very interesting.

I highly recommend the book to others.
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AmberDemonWolf
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This book was given to me by the lady in the next apartment to ours whilst we were holidaying on Crete. We'd struck up a 'Lovely weather again/how's your day been?' relationship whilst sitting on our ground floor balconies reading.

"You won't be able to put it down," she told me.

She was right.

The book is based on Ikey Solomon, the so-called "Prince of Fences" and the basis of the Fagin character in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. It is the first in a three-part series, followed by Tommo & Hawk and Solomon's Song. I have since bought the trilogy in one huge book and will probably re-read the first part.

The book's other main character is fictional, a woman named Mary Abacus. Abacus goes from serving girl, to prostitute, to high-class madam, to prisoner transported to Australia, to successful businesswoman. She gets her name for her outstanding ability to use an abacus.

The story starts in London in the early 1800s. Mary and Ikey start working together as business partners. It follows them as they are separately sent to Australia, a penal colony at the time.
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shairanime
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This is more of a 3 3/4 stars. I love a good history lesson set within a well told story. This book did provide that. It is shocking to see how miserable life was for the poor of England and Australia in the 1800's. This book showed the worst of the worst human behavior. Sometimes it was a little hard to read for that reason. Especially when so much of this behavior was directed at women and children. The character of Mary Abacus was superb. Her entire storyline was the best part of the book. In fact, I would have given the book 5 stars if it had featured her and kept Ikey Solomon as a supporting character. Especially because then the author could have left out all those painstakingly boring details of Ikey's life in London. I finally had to skim over those parts. It was either that or I would have been sleeping. The book really lost its momentum in those sections. Plus, I never really took to the character of Ikey. He was really just a filthy, little, conniving man.


Overall, a nice book if the reader is prepared for the occasional case of the doldrums (that gets better once they leave England). I especially loved hearing about Tasmania's penal history since I had just visited the island. It made this portion of the book really come alive for me since I could picture the surroundings so well.
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Masamune_Zero
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This is top shelf writing, but the narration deserves a shelf of its own. Humphrey Bower kept all the characters unique, personal, consistent and convincing.

This was a dark, depressing, but very human story with very complete characters. I listened to it in less than a week. Courtenay's writing is rich, and at times my daughter would overhear and ask to keep listening because the language was so evocative. I suspect that future readers might judge harshly some of the treatment of racial issues, and they might be right.

Looking forward to getting into book #2.
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LRTmaknaE
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Perhaps my favorite work of historical fiction. Courtenay spins a intriguing tale of crime and deceit in early 19th century England and the Hobart Town penal colony. Ikey Solomon (likely the character that Fagen of Oliver was based on) is easy to both love and hate. We find ourselves sympathizing with Solomon, and despising him at the same time.

A must-read for historical fiction fans. You will find yourself wanting to read the two other books in the series.
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LegendOfMazda
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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A rip-roarin' tale. The book follows Ikey Solomon, his genuinely evil wife, Hannah, and also Ikey's sometime-business-partner and sometime-lover(maybe) Mary Abacus, from Dickensian London, ultimately to Tasmania, in Australia. They are all individually "transported" there under Britian's criminal punishment policy, which generated much of the early (non-native) population of Australia. (Solomon, incidentally, was apparently a real-life figure, who formed the basis of Fagin in Dickens' book, Oliver Twist.) All are members of the impoverished underclass, as well as engaged in crimes in England both large and small. But Ikey and Mary prove to have good hearts, and while Ikey ultimately cannot fully redeem himself, he aids Mary in creating a successful beer business in Australia. The plot is gory, brutal, exciting, interesting, sad, happy, and redemptive; it is too involved to summarize, so look elsewhere for that. But suffice it to say, this is epic good storytelling. Dialect feels very authentic, characterization of the main characters is wonderful. The atmosphere and the attitudes of the characters are historically accurate, not glossed with a modern sensibility. This is a full-throated NOVEL, in the old-school, sit-down, curl up, live-in-a-different-world sense of the word. Apparently the sequel is about Mary's adoptive sons, Tommo and Hawk. I intend to read that as well.
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