They Seek a Country

Nail-maker John Oakley was born in the town of Dulston, but his mother remembered happier origins in the rural village of Grafton Lovett. After her death, he sets out to find his maternal grandfather. In 1836 the Enclosure Bill is about to be implemented in Grafton Lovett and Oakley, returning on foot from a fruitless visit to Parliament, meets some poachers, is arrested and sentenced to transportation to Van Diemen's Land. He jumps ship off the coast of South Africa where he is befriended by the Prinsloos, a family of Dutch origin, who are about to leave their homestead to escape from English rule. Oakley, now known as Grafton, accompanies them. Throughout the story there is conflict: between nations, between families and within families, and yet a love affair develops between John Grafton and Lisbet Prinsloo.