Talented, well trained and confident in his own abilities and worth, Australia's first government architect was also hot-headed and tactless.

Sentenced to death for forgery, then granted a last-minute reprieve, Francis Greenway was transported to New South Wales in 1814. Within a single eventful decade, Greenway's and Governor Lachlan Macquarie's transformation of Sydney from a ramshackle convict garrison into an elegant city was well under way with buildings like the Hyde Park Barracks, St James' Church, Supreme Court and Windsor courthouse.

Award-winning author Alasdair McGregor – in the first biography of Greenway since 1953 – scrutinises the life and work of a man beset by contradictions and demons. He profiles Greenway's landmark buildings, his meteoric rise and his complex and fraught relationship with Governor Macquarie, along with his thwarted ambitions and self-destruction. All played out in a fledgling colony in the throes of change from far-flung gaol to a society of free settlers.

'Beautifully crafted, superbly evoked − a great tale, told by a master.' —Peter FitzSimons