Speaker: Penny Nelson

Topic: Babette Smith OAM: Breakthrough historian – an amazing life

Babette Smith (image left), 1942-2021, worked in television, theatre and film, but it was the discovery of a female convict among her ancestors that set her writing a series of books on those transported to Australia, including A Cargo of Women, The Luck of the Irish, and Defiant Voices: How Australia’s Female Convicts Defied Authority. Her work sheds new light on the lives of convicts transported to Australia, especially the 25,000 of them who were women.

Penny Nelson is a former TAFE teacher who also worked at the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board and the NSW Ombudsman’s Office. She has her own impressive list of writing on cultural and social topics and is the author of novels and the memoir Penny Dreadful.

 

Where –  The meeting room at the Customs House Library, at Circular Quay.
When –  The talk will begin at 12.15, The room is open from 11.30 for tea/coffee/sandwiches.
Entry – $20 JSNWL members $25 non-members
PLEASE BOOK BY NOON Monday 19 June 2023
Phone the library on (02) 9571 5359 or email .au