James Best was a simple man who lived a remarkable life. At various times a sailor, shepherd, hawker and prisoner of Napoleon he above all was a man who loved his family. Through his letters written between 1837 and 1865 we meet James and his family and learn what it was like to live in the time when Tasmania, Australia was called Van Diemen's Land, bushrangers threatened, gold fever was rampant and life was more perilous. Highway robbery and murder, elopement, infidelity and the ups and downs of family life are all here. Importantly, they are not seen through the lens of the upper class as is often the case with history, but by an agricultural labourer.