A Wild Adventure: Fragments from the Life of Thomas Watling Dumfries Convict Artist

Tom Pow’s beautiful, powerful poems examine the remarkable life of Thomas Watling. Watling was born in Dumfries in September 1762 and raised by a long-suffering maiden aunt. Convicted of forging Bank of Scotland one-guinea notes he was sentenced to 14 years in the recently founded colony of Botany Bay in Australia. The first professional artist to arrive in the colony, Watling was seconded to its Surgeon General (and amateur naturalist) John White. His pioneer paintings of birds, animals, and the landscape became some of the principal records of the earliest days of Australia. He was eventually pardoned in April 1797 and left Australia, eventually returning home to Dumfries. He died there, most likely in 1814. This poetry collection that brilliantly captures his life is published to coincide with the bicentenary of Watling’s death.

Tom Pow is an award-winning poet and author of both children’s and adults’ books, including In the Becoming, Transfusion, When the Rains Come, and Who Is the World For? He is an honorary senior research fellow University of Glasgow in Dumfries.