What is a new way of telling a story about a bushranger, particularly one of the best-known in Australia? In this case, a couple of teenagers, and their different views about Ben Hall, are the vehicle for the story.
One is Lily, 13, in a hotel at Canowindra in 1863 with her parents, who are part of a travelling theatre company. When Ben Hall’s gang arrives, they hold a three-day party, keeping the town residents and any travellers captive there without harming or robbing anyone, even paying the hotel proprietors for the food and drink consumed.
Meanwhile in Forbes, a similarly aged Sam is a stable boy at the Cobb and Co coach stop, and previously worked at the police stables, admiring Sir Frederick Pottinger for his horsemanship. Sir Frederick was in charge of the police attempts to find the Hall gang and stop their bushranging.
So when Lily and her parents reach Forbes, and she meets Sam, their opinions of Ben Hall and Sir Frederick are vastly opposed. Apart from seeing the Hall gang at the Canowindra Hotel, Lily has been told about Ben Hall’s background by Sam’s cousin Polly, who worked at that hotel. While she and Sam disagree about who is the real hero and who is the villain, they join forces in Bathurst to try and make sure a generous donation by Ben Hall reaches the right person.
This story about a travelling theatre company brings home the need for entertainment in the country towns of that time, with people flocking to see the play Macbeth.
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville
Age Guide 9+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sophie Beaumont is the pen name of Sophie Masson.
Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, of French parents who are themselves of mixed ethnicity: Basque, Spanish, Portuguese and French-Canadian as well as French, Sophie Masson came to Australia at the age of five, after spending four years with her paternal grandmother in France, due to illness striking when she was a baby in Indonesia.
All her childhood, the family moved back and forth between Australia and France, unable to make up their minds as to where to live, so Sophie grew up between worlds, and between languages, an experience which has formed a lot of her work. (You can see a small glimpse of that globetrotting childhood in a short video on the Interviews and Videos page, about an epic ocean trip from Australia to France that Sophie and her family took when she was a child.)
From a young age, Sophie loved stories: told, read and written! As a child, she created comic books and short stories, wrote poetry, and started on a big ambitious fantasy novel as a teenager still at school. Her first ‘published’ book was a picture book she created as an older teenager (pic below) with her younger sister Gabrielle, Valerie Behind The Bottlebrush, which was published in a highly-limited deluxe edition of–one! Unlike her efforts from childhood, this one has survived–if a little the worse for wear–and now sits proudly in the cabinet that holds all her more traditionally-published titles!
In 2019, Sophie was awarded an AM(General Division) in the Order of Australia, announced in the Australia Day Honours list. Her citation reads: ‘For significant service to literature as an author, publisher, and through roles in industry organisations’.
Bold Ben Hall was published in 2025.
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