A Forger's Progress: The Life of Francis Greenway

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NewSouth Publishing, 2014 - Biography & Autobiography - 369 pages

A forger and convicted felon, Francis Greenway was transported to Sydney in 1814. Only a decade later, his dreams of a "city superior in architectural beauty to London" began to be realized as he designed Hyde Park Barracks, St James' Church, the Supreme Court, St Luke's Church in Liverpool, and the Windsor courthouse. In this first biography of Greenway since 1953, award-winning author Alasdair McGregor scrutinizes the character and creative output of a man beset by contradictions and demons. He profiles Greenway's landmark buildings, his complex and fraught relationship with Governor Lachlan Macquarie, and his thwarted ambitions and self-destruction.

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About the author (2014)

Alasdair McGregor is the author of Frank Hurley: A Photographer's Life; Mawson's Huts: An Antarctic Expedition Journal; and Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, winner of the 2011 National Biography Award; and the coauthor of Australia's Wild Islands and The Kimberley: Horizons of Stone, both with Quentin Chester.

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