Bøker av Greg Barron

As a child, Frederick Morton lives with his broken family in a Stepney slum, mudlarking on the Thames riverbank to survive. Through the sponsorship of Lord Bartholomew Forgill, Frederick gains a top-notch education. One night, however, staying at the Forgill residence, he witnesses a distressing incident that will haunt him through the years.At twenty-five, now an engineer in Lord Forgill's steam engine company, Frederick falls for Clare, a young Frenchwoman. Forced to defend his suit with a 300-kilometre trek from Paris to the sea, Frederick discovers a talent for the Victorian-era sport of Pedestrianism.When Forgill's son Percy terminates Frederick's employment, the former slum-dweller establishes his own stationary engine factory, part-funded by prize money from pedestrian competitions. While Percy plots their downfall, the next generation of Mortons travel to Africa and Australia, marketing their innovative engines. The family stakes everything on a public float, while Clare delves into the Forgill family's secrets.The Pedestrian is a journey through another age, seen through the eyes of a family involved in a pivotal industry. It celebrates the power of engineering, explores a fatal rivalry, and condemns the inhuman cycle of intergenerational poverty.

While running from the law across the New South Wales border, Will Jones and his crew join forces to stop a runaway wagon, saving the life of the terrified driver. On board, inside a tea chest, is a precious cargo - a new breed of pups that will one day become known as Queensland blue heelers. The smallest of the pups appears to be injured beyond repair. Can he be saved? The owner doesn't think so. Pursued by a dogged but flawed police sergeant, Will continues the journey north, following river tracks with Lainey, Fat Sam and Gamilaroi Jim. On the goldfields of North Queensland they receive an offer too good to refuse. This leads them to a new field, where nothing is quite as it seems. Will Jones needs all his wits to escape the trap set for him, though it's the loyalty of his mates that saves the day. Will Jones and the Blue Dog is the second book in the series, following on from Will Jones and the Dead Man's Letter, set across the colourful and wild landscape of 1880s Australia.

In the early 1850s everyone knows that the Murray River has potential for river traffic. It takes months for drays to bring stores to isolated stations, and sheds packed with wool bales wait for transport to market. The South Australian government offers a cash reward for the captains of the first two steam-powered vessels to not only arrive at the Murray, but travel upstream to the junction with the Darling. Two men answer the call. The first is William Randell, from Gumeracha. William and his brothers build their fifty-five foot Mary Ann in an Adelaide Hills sawpit, then assemble it on the banks of the Murray, installing a small beam-type steam engine made by a local engineer of German descent. The second man to throw his hat into the ring is Captain Cadell, a sea captain of long experience and a budding entrepreneur with grandiose designs. With the help of wealthy investors, Cadell has his 105 foot Lady Augusta built in a Darling Harbour shipyard, with twin state-of-the-art horizontal steam engines, and accommodation for thirty. Cadell and Randell would both like to be remembered as the founders of Murray River navigation. Both are ambitious and highly skilled in their own way. This is the story of what happens when they pit their skills against each other, and against one of the mightiest rivers on earth.

When a horseman rides into camp, with a bullet hole in his gut and not long for this world, Will Jones finds not only that the dying man has a gang of New South Wales mounted police on his tail, but a canvas-wrapped parcel in his saddle bags. A scrawled address includes the promise of a reward to deliver the package to a station-owner in Western Queensland.With two mates, and an unexpected hanger-on, Will sets out on an adventure across two lawless states in 1880s Australia. Yet, he soon learns that there is a price on his head, and that he is an unwitting tool in a game with mysteriously high stakes.

They called her Red Jack, for her hair was as bright as an outback sunset, hanging to her waist from beneath a stained cattleman's hat. On her jet-black stallion, Mephistopheles, she roved the north in the 1880s and 90s. Where did she come from, and where did she go? No one knows for sure, but the mystery lives on.The Ragged Thirteen were a band of thirteen larrikins who put their stamp on Australian folklore with their devil-may-care journey across the wild Northern Australian frontier. They were not bushrangers, but were certainly inclined to bend the law. This fictional account is based on the recollections of settlers and pioneers, but is, most of all, a yarn in the best traditions of the word.