50 Years Hard: The Story of Pentridge Gaol from 1850 to 1900

In sullen majesty, Pentridge Gaol glowers at the traffic of suburban Melbourne from behind incongruous flower-beds. Where it stands is dark and bloody ground. For more than a century, it has been the battlefield of an undeclared war. On one side, the law, whose authority was once wielded with savagely as the cat o'nine tails. On the other, the prisoners, whose weapons were cunning, intrigue, and sometimes sudden desperate violence. Out of the first fifty years of this battle, the authors have created a fascinating account of escapes, mortal combats, vicious tyrants, last-minute reprieves, and the myriad dramatic and pathetic details of life behind the grim stone walls. Their story echoes the whistling lash, the tramp of hopeless feet, the sombre thump of the gallows trap... and yet, in a sinister sense, it also conveys something of the defiant resilience of the human spirit,