Most Australians owe what they know of the Eureka Stockade to Raffaello Carboni, the Italian chronicler of the uprising. Yet they know little about Carboni himself. Variously described as 'quaint' and 'braggart' he has remained an enigma. How many are aware that the high treason charge he faced after Eureka was not his first? That he was naturalised in Victoria? That he associated with the composer Rossini in Rome? In this, the first book-length biography of the exuberant Italian, Desmond O'Grady tracks Carboni from Italy through Germany and England to Ballarat, and then follows him to Calcutta and on to home where he participated in Garibaldi's campaign for a united Italy. For the first time Carboni's viewpoint on Eureka emerges clearly, as does the bitter outcome of his literary ambitions. The man who participated in uprisings on two continents dreamt only of stage curtains on his own ignored plays.
