Reade, Charles (playwright), 1814-1884

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English novelist and dramatist, who never visited Australia, but who "used documentary evidence from the colonies to establish the settings for two of his works - the five-act play Gold [1853], in which acts three and four are set in Australia, and It is Never Too Late to Mend [1856], based on the life and experiences of George Sandford." --Austlit. In addition his novel and drama Foul Play (1868), written with Dion Boucicault (1820-1890), opens in Hobart; the main character is a clergyman wrongly convicted of forgery and transported to Australia. He escapes and is shipwrecked on a desert island, the main point of the work being to expose the "ship-knackers" or insurance fraudsters who scuttled unseaworthy and overladen boats. Link to catalogue record.

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