New Book Shares 'Napoleon's History of Australia'

Researching her family genealogy and finding her father's diary led author D. Y. Gilbert to write "Napoleon's History of Australia" (published by Xlibris AU). This book reveals history seen through the eyes of five generations.

Born in 1799, English Napoleon Gilbert immigrated with his family to Tasmania in the late 1820s. This family saga spans five generations - from rags to riches and back again, farming and convict labour in Tasmania, butchering meat for Victorian gold miners, Darling Downs squattocracy, Ballarat and Melbourne architect, genteel Melbourne society, the 1890 crash, Prussian farmers in Ipswich, Two World Wars, death and poverty in Port Pirie and scandalous unwed motherhood in Adelaide. Readers will journey through the family's impressive achievements, earth-shattering tragedies and some startling skeletons in the closet.

Gilbert weaves the breadth of history into the story and presents boring data as an exciting family saga. She is helped by a sketchy genealogy written by her great-uncle in 1928, a lifetime of passion about history in general and an understanding of human nature gleaned from teaching personal experience and observing people. This book underlines how social norms change overtime but some things remain - courage, venality, greed, compassion, service, sacrifice, love and lust.

An excerpt from the book:
As he thought about his life up until that point and how bitter, resentful and angry he really had been, he began to understand that all the events that had shaped his life, both good and bad, were neither detrimental nor advantageous but just that; they had shaped him.

"Napoleon's History of Australia"
By D. Y. Gilbert
Hardcover | 6x9in | 178 pages | ISBN 9781514446843
Softcover | 6x9in | 178 pages | ISBN 9781514446836
E-Book | 178 pages | ISBN 9781514446829
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author
D. Y. Gilbert was born in January 1950 in Adelaide, South Australia. She is the youngest daughter of Melbourne Napoleon Gilbert and inheritor of five generations of 'Napoleons.' Educated at Black Forest and Glenelg Primary Schools and Woodlands CEGGS, she matriculated in 1967. In 1968 she was a rotary exchange student to El Paso, Texas and in 1969 attended the SA School of Art in Adelaide. After a failed marriage she studied secondary art teaching at Underdale CAE, and in 1980 remarried, a marriage which has lasted 37 years. She has four sons, two daughters and several grandchildren. Gilbert has been an educator for 27 years and has a master's degree in special education. She has recently retired and is now working on several novels. Her hobbies are writing, painting and bushwalking.

Xlibris Publishing Australia, an Author Solutions, LLC imprint, is a self-publishing services provider dedicated to serving Australian authors. By focusing on the needs of creative writers and artists and adopting the latest print-on-demand publishing technology and strategies, we provide expert publishing services with direct and personal access to quality publication in hardcover, trade paperback, custom leather-bound and full-color formats. To date, Xlibris has helped to publish more than 60,000 titles.For more information, visit xlibrispublishing.com.au or call 1800 455 039 to receive a free publishing guide. Follow us @XlibrisAus on Twitter for the latest news.

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