> Skip to content
  • Published: 3 September 2019
  • ISBN: 9781925324006
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

Wild



An absolute romp, lead by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Wild, through the criminal underbelly of thriving 17th century London.

Jonathan Wild knows power like no one else in London. He arrived as a wide-eyed young man in 1703, dazzled by a metropolis brimming with trade, immigration and crime. With a combination of greed, arrogance and ambition, Wild stopped at nothing to secure his place in this great and monstrous London and within a few years, he became the city’s Thief-Taker General, one of the most feared and wealthy officials in town, charged with the capture and arrest of felons for reward. But his power is matched only by the number of enemies he’s made along the way, and his star is burning rather too brightly for the likings of some.

Daniel Defoe is in trouble. Following a series of failed business ventures, the renowned pamphleteer, fiction writer and political operative is dead broke. With his creditors at his heels, and facing debtors’ prison, Defoe is too crippled with anxiety to write. That is, until he visits Newgate Prison with the intention of chronicling the stories of its inmates, and meets a young man with a deep hatred for Jonathan Wild and a story to tell.

WILD is a delightfully outrageous period drama that charts the rise and fall and rise again of two men whose lives become intertwined in the most surprising of ways.

  • Published: 3 September 2019
  • ISBN: 9781925324006
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

About the author

Nathan Besser

Nathan Besser was born in 1981 in Sydney. While attending secondary school he met his future wife Ariela Bard. They now live together in Sydney with their 3 children.

Nathan wrote poetry and short fiction from the age of sixteen. After completing high school he worked in various jobs, including as a delivery driver, security guard, clinical trial participant, hotel manager and call centre operator. During this time he wrote for various publications, and had three stories published in the Best Australian Stories collection. After failing to find a publisher for his first novel, he devoted his time solely to business for several years, buying and starting several small businesses. These included a restaurant delivery company, an online alcohol delivery company, a cold chain logistics service and two lingerie stores.

Following the birth of his second child, during a short holiday in Japan, he decided to begin writing again. He set to work on what would become Man in the Corner, his first (published) novel, which has also been optioned for film by Simon Baker and Rebecca Rigg. He is currently working on another novel.

Also by Nathan Besser

See all