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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is a historical fiction about the most notorious criminal in England in the early 1800's and his exile to Australia. It reads to me like a Dickens novel, set in the same time period. I've never actually read any other books that tell the story of how Australia was settled and how the convicts were brought here and treated once they arrived. The first half of the book is wordy, slow and hard to read. And only at the halfway point it gradually accelerates. So I doubt very much whether I’ll pick up the next two books in the trilogy. This one was good, but not that good.

Set in the early 19th century, THE POTATO FACTORY explores the lives of London's thieves, con men, prostitutes, street urchins and lowlife who, suffering from England's social and political inequalities, are sent to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). This Dickensian tale with larger-than-life characters and plenty of pulp is not for the fainthearted as master storyteller Bryce Courtenay spares no sordid or salacious detail. I loved the book but at 852 pages found it to be overly long. Like all good storytellers, Courtenay digresses, occasionally going into way too much detail without necessarily furthering the plot or providing additional insight into the characters.

Holy hell! This is one damn good book. Bryce Courtenay still amazes me in his level of research comparable to only authors such as Diana Gabaldon and Jack Whyte. It deals with the populating of the British colonies in Australia, Tasmaina, and New Zealand. While the accuracy of detail is impeccable, his skill as a storyteller is what keeps me hooked on ordering his books from Australia. Good God, I hope this man lives forever and keeps writing! Thank goodness that it is one book in a series of 3. I was devastated by the end of Peekay's story in South Africa but being shipped from England's slums to Tasmania for the past few months has been a journey never to forget. Definately a keeper on my favorites shelves!!!

This book is a good one to read if interested in the historical perspective of Australia (or rather Van Diemen's/Tasmania) as a destination for prisoners from Great Britain in the early decades of the 19th century. It covers the prison ships as they transport those banished from their home countries and then life as they live out their terms and afterwards.

It is also the fictionaliized story of an infamous criminal, Ikey Solomon and his life of crime. Ikey is believed by many to have been the model for the Dickensian character, Fagin, who trained a multitude of little pickpockets like his character, the Artful Dodger, who also had a little part of this novel.

It is also a story of Mary Abacus, Ikey's one time mistress and long time business partner, who was my favorite character of the book. With many strikes against her, she never gives up and is determined to pull herself and others beyond what could be expected.

It is ultimately a good story interwoven with a good amount of history which is my favorite type of book.