Carmen Callil: Oh Happy Day: Those Times and These Times
Carmen Callil explores her roots in a book that is a miracle of research and whose writing is fuelled by righteous anger – a story of Empire, migration and the poverty and injustice of nineteenth-century England
In this remarkable book, Carmen Callil discovers the story of her British ancestors, beginning with her great-great-grandmother Sary Lacey, born illegitimate in 1808, an impoverished stocking frame worker in Leicestershire. Through detailed research, we follow Sary from slum to tenement and from pregnancy to pregnancy. We also meet George Conquest, a canal worker and the father of one of Sary’s children. George was sentenced – for stealing a piece of hemp – to seven years’ transportation to Australia, where he faced the extraordinary brutality of convict life. Meanwhile, Mary Ann Brooks and her father John, a silversmith, travel across the seas from Lincolnshire to escape the Workhouse and life as a skivvy.
But for George, as for so many destitute and disenfranchised British people like him, Australia turned out to be his Happy Day. He survived, prospered and eventually returned to England, where he met Sary again, after nearly thirty years. He brought her out to Australia, and they were never parted again.
Carmen Callil not only reclaims from obscurity the lives of these ordinary men and women who were sent to Australia as convicts or domestic servants, but also draws telling parallels for our own times. Oh Happy Day is a moving story of poverty, social injustice, Empire and migration.
The last order date for Christmas delivery is Wednesday 18th December.
Click and collect from the museum in Lewisham is available to order until Friday 20th December, with collection by Sunday 22nd.
We currently ship to the UK via Royal Mail 48 delivery.
We are hoping to expand our shipping options to include international customers very soon.
Prices
Orders under £45 : £4.50
Orders over £45: Free
Dispatch and delivery time
We dispatch all orders within 2-5 working days. Please allow at least 6 working days for your item to arrive.
We are a small team operating out of a venue which is open to the public. We will always do our best to keep you informed where there are any delays to our service.
Click and Collect
We now offer free click and collect from the Migration Museum in Lewisham Shopping Centre. Please note that the museum is currently open Friday - Sunday.
Ordering our organic cotton, sustainable clothing range
In order that we are able to offer a wide range of sizes and variations of our most popular design, we work with a print-on-demand clothing company. These items will be fulfilled separately from other items ordered from the Migration Museum and will arrive separately.