The Commandant

He jumped down to the wharf and walked alone out of the torchlight to stand behind Letty. Frances looked from his face to her sister's, and once again felt the weakening flush of fear. She was too much at the mercy of her company, and was about to discover which of her unpredictable selves would advance to meet these two strangers.

The penal colony of Moreton Bay is under the command of Patrick Logan, a man not afraid of brutal discipline. But his rule is being questioned and the arrival of his sister-in-law Frances will change everything.

The Commandant is an unforgettable tale of power, duty and humanity.

About the Author

Jessica Anderson was born in Gayndah, Queensland, in 1916. She left school at the age of sixteen before briefly studying art at Brisbane Technical College. For most of her life she lived in Sydney. Anderson wrote stories and adapted novels for radio before she published her first novel, An Ordinary Lunacy, in 1963. In 1978, she won the Miles Franklin Literary Award for Tirra Lirra by the River, and again in 1980 for The Impersonators, which also won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction. In 1987 her story collection, Stories from the Warm Zone, won the Age Book of the Year award.

Jessica Anderson died in July 2010, at the age of ninety-three.