By M. Barnard Eldershaw. Illustrated by Adrian Feint. Published by Ure Smith in association with the National Trust of Australia, 1973. Softcover with 201 pages. Weight approx 630g.

"In the spring of 1791 at Maybole in Ayrshire, John Piper, a mercurial boy of eighteen, was fretting to begin life. His father, Hugh Piper, practised there as a doctor and hoped that John would follow that profession. But the boy rebelled. He wanted adventure, colour and movement, the splendour of life, the heroic gesture, and because they were a military family he saw it in soldiering. He appealed to his uncle, Captain John Piper, and at the end of April came the long- awaited and desperately important news. He was to have an Ensigncy in the newly formed New South Wales Corp. It was not a fashionable or popular regiment, but no doubt, John's imagination built it into something splendid as he set out for the new world."