The Remarkable Mrs Reibey cover art

The Remarkable Mrs Reibey

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Remarkable Mrs Reibey

By: Grantlee Kieza
Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

About this listen

As a teenage orphan in England in 1791, Mary Reibey was sentenced to death for stealing a horse. When police cornered her, she was dressed as a boy, and she maintained that disguise until she was unmasked at her trial. Due to her 'tender age', Reibey was spared the hangman's noose and sentenced to seven years' transportation to the colony of New South Wales. With the odds stacked against her, Reibey went on to become Australia's first female business tycoon and the richest woman in the colony, founding the Bank of New South Wales (Westpac), now one of the nation's biggest financial institutions.

In this engaging and meticulously researched portrait, the acclaimed author of bestsellers such as Mrs Kelly, Banks, Banjo and Monash, brings to life the woman immortalised on the Australian $20 note.

2024, Indie Book Awards Non Fiction, Short-listed

2024, Queensland Literary Awards People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award, Short-listed

©2023 Grantlee Kieza. Grantlee Kieza asserts their moral right to be identified as the author of this Work. First published in English by HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty Limited in. This audio version produced by arrangement with HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty Limited. (P)2023 Bolinda Publishing. This audio version produced by arrangement with HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty Limited Australia, New Zealand & Oceania Business Oceania Professionals & Academics Women in Business Banking
All stars
Most relevant  
The story is fantastic but this narrator’s voice was just horrible, grating and lacking in style or emotion…

Dreadful narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I knew something about Mary Reibey, and was most interested to hear her remarkable story in much more detail. In fact I have visited her house on the banks of the Hawkesbury - or one of her many houses, it turned out. I have also seen Deidre Rubenstein on stage, and heard her in radio productions in years past. She is a highly competent narrator and tells a story well.

Well-told story of an important Sydney character.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Living remotely I can’t always get hard copies of books so have been buying audible books. I don’t know what the narrator was trying to do with her odd delivery of this interesting story. It was an ordeal to get to the end, and I had constantly to try to block out the intensely annoying audio to focus on the text. Please do not use this narrator ever again.

Hated the narration. Love Grantley Kieza’s writing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The history of our country should be a subject added to school curriculums. I had never heard of Mrs Reibey and yet she is pictured on our currency. The book is a fascinating look at colonial life and how Australia’s First People were driven to retaliation to hold onto their lands and their culture.
The only thing I didn’t like was the narration. I found myself putting the story down from time to time hoping that the next chapter would improve, but sadly that did not happen. It really was a struggle to finish the book.

Loved this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoyed this book. Well
researched and a fantastic story about an amazing woman who overcame so much. I also disagree with some other reviewers, I enjoyed the narration.

A great read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Meticulous research - the focus on Mrs Reiby gets a bit lost sometimes in sections where the historical context is being explained but a sense of Mary Reiby as a person is reasonably well developed. I hate to leave negative reviews but the narration is awful, stilted and shrill. I am not sure I can finish it to be honest.

Well researched but awful narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Mary Reibey - the woman on the $20 note - what a life she had. What an inspiring lady - sentenced to death, reprieved, makes it to Sydney as a 14-year-old convict and becomes a shipping magnate. At 30 is a widow with 7 kids but still powers on. Great stuff.

A brilliant story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story of Mary and Australian history. I did not enjoy the narration, which left me feeling as if I was being yelled at. A shame.

Great book spoilt by shouted narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I am not fond of the voice actress. She shouts a lot, has strange voice breaks and an oddly false-sounding accent (as if she has had elocution lessons).

I was also not pleased that the story of Mrs Reiby was so often squeezed between irrelevant tangents that tied in to the author's other published works. Much of the book felt like a biography of Macquarie - I heard so much about his life that I am disinclined to listen to Kieza's biography of him, which was going to be my next book.

Shouty presenter, lots of filler

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An interesting snapshot if you can bare the reader a great g read do t know why they chose an English accent should have been an Australian

Great if you can handle the reader - listen in short doses

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.