If your Grandad was a convict, clap your hands …

The Potato Factory is a 1995 fictionalised historical novel by Bryce Courtenay which was made into a television miniseries in Australia in 2000. The book is the first in a three-part series, followed by

Tommo & Hawk and

Solomon’s Song.

The Potato Factory has been the subject of some controversy regarding its historical accuracy and its portrayal of Jewish characters.

The book is based on Ikey Solomon, the so-called “Prince of Fences”, and the basis of the Fagin character in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. …

The story starts in London in the early 19th century. Mary and Ikey start working together as business partners. It follows them as they are separately sent to Tasmania, a penal colony at the time. …

Many have heard of Bryce Courtenay’s more famous book and movie – The Power of One. He wrote that at age-55, his first book.

Potato Factory is even better.

It has a 4 / 5 rating on Goodreads.

I’ve downloaded part 2 in the trilogy, Tommo & Hawk.

Born in South Africa, the trilogy is Courtenay’s “love letter to his adopted homeland”.