Traveller author Bob Rogers releases debut novel ‘End of the Sky’
A Traveller author’s dip into genealogy has led him to unearth an extraordinary story of riches to rags and back again, scandalous romance and ruthlessness, and now a novel based on the life of his pioneering great-great grandmother is set for a UK launch.
‘The End of the Sky,’ relates the saga of Ellen Bullingham, born in Cheltenham in 1849 who began her working life aged twelve as pub servant pub before emigrating to Queensland with her young husband and baby son in 1873, leaving behind a two-year-old daughter.
Now her great-great grandson, author and journalist, Bob Rogers, has brought her story to life. ‘All I knew was a branch of my Anglo/Irish mother’s family hailed from Uckington, Cheltenham, but when I began my search, I discovered that a relative I was unaware of in Queensland had done much of the groundwork - and it led to Ellen’s remarkable adventures,’ he said.
Ellen and Romani husband, Enoch’s landing in Queensland in January 1873 was fortuitous as it coincided with the dawn of the Palmer River gold rush which was to yield more than a hundred tons of alluvial gold unearthed by tens of thousands of European and Chinese prospectors.
But conditions on the fields were brutal with searing heat, disease, toxic wildlife and explosive tensions as mutual hatred and distrust between Europeans and Chinese flared white hot with both factions also in dread of hostile native tribes.
After Enoch transgressed the law and was sent thousands of miles to a Western Australia labour camp, Ellen encountered beautiful Irish teenager, Theresa Kelly. A friendship developed into something much deeper and Ellen had to contend with the conflict of forbidden love in a time of intolerance.
BZ (Bob) Rogers was born in Wales and attended twenty-eight schools during his early travelling years, including William Shakespeare’s alma mater in Stratford Upon Avon. His father, from rural North Wales, spoke no English prior to army enlistment while his Anglo/Irish mother had her roots in and around Cheltenham.
He left school at fourteen, not returning to education until his mid-thirties when a love of writing led him to study journalism, leading to a career in newspapers and broadcasting. A return to university in later life brought an honours degree and a master’s in creative writing.
He admits the current project might not have come to fruition without the priceless help of local history societies and individuals in Gloucestershire and Queensland.
He states, ‘I am tremendously grateful for the knowledge and expertise of members of Cheltenham Local History Society and their contemporaries in Charters Towers, Queensland for providing facts, records and even photographs of long-lost relatives to bring Ellen’s extraordinary story to life.
‘Even though the novel is a dramatised account of the Ellen’s travels and adventures, many of the people and the places are real. She experienced tremendous hardships and dangers, discovering and losing a fortune before also losing and finding new love, forging enduring friendships and making deadly enemies. But it’s a story of hope springing from tragedy.’
Rogers says, “I set up Vanner Press as the vehicle to get the book out there because without the networking and more conventional routes into publishing, people from a traveller background don’t always have a level field to play on. I am hoping if the book is successful there may be the opportunity to get work by fellow travellers into print. Travellers are natural storytellers; my parents never ran out of amazing and amusing tales and I wish we’d had the means back then to record them all.”
The End of the Sky received its UK launch in Cheltenham on April 10th, 2024 - to coincide with Ellen’s 175th birthday, but there will be signings and meet and greet events throughout Wales and the West this spring and summer. The Australian launch is set for September, 2024.
End of the Sky can be purchased at WH Smith, most other bookshops, and on BZ Rogers' website.
Press release/TT News
(Main photo: BZ Rogers, courtesy of Vanner Press)