Oh Happy Day

By Carmen Callil

Carmen Callil’s ancestors arrived in Australia on emigrant ships and convict transports, forced from their homeland by destitution or the penal code. In Oh Happy Day she uncovers their story, her research impelled by wonder and indignation that lights up every page. It’s fierce, personal, revelatory history.
~ Hilary Mantel

Share the book

Publish Date: 2020

A compelling tale of ‘poverty, social injustice, Empire and migration’, the book tells the story of Carmen Callil’s family, tracing back their origins to the Midlands in the early 19th century. Uncovering the journey of Sary, her great-great-grandmother, a poor stocking frame worker, and George, a canal worker and father of one of her children convicted for stealing a piece of hemp and sent to Australia, Callil brings to life the past and draws important parallels with the present.