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Author/Guide: Lesley Pearse

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1786 – A true story of one woman’s struggle over adversity as she was one of the first convicts to be transported to Australia

ISBN: 978-0141046082
Genre: Fiction, Historical

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What you need to know before your trail

In 1786 a fisherman’s daughter from Cornwall called Mary Broad was sentenced to be hung for theft. But her sentence was commuted, and she was transported to Australia, one of the first convicts to arrive there.

She struggles to escape the harsh existence of the colony and even ends up finding true love, but then finds herself transported back to London in chains where she is tried by James Boswell.
A remarkable story that is all the more so for being true.

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Travel Guide

The very fact that prisoners from the Uk were transported to colonies in Australia is well known but the conditions on the boats over there and the treatment of these people is not but but reading this evocative novel you will see and experience this journey for yourself. Heartbreaking and poignant it is.

The journey of the first convicts to Botany Bay is quite a journey and we are with Mary every step of the way. Despite being a journey for prisoners, and whatever you may think they deserve, the conditions whether on a cart, the boat or in the prison itself are quite frightening –

“If it’s gaol fever that’s come across us, we’ll all die he said gloomily. We’ve got to find a way to make them swill out these holds”

The conditions were as stark and horrifying as you ever could imagine – excrement lying everywhere, people riddled with lice and other bugs, the dark dank hard floors and the lack of space or privacy.Oh and the smells and the rolling seas.

Imagine being freed from the threat of hanging only to have the rest of the horrors such as these and those of of Botany Bay to look forward to.

“Captain Cook had reported on a palace there he had named botany bay, which it thought might be suitable for a penal colony..”

As for when they reached their destination, this must have been quite a relief to them. However this was the moment which the real agony started and where the real pain and suffering occurred.

Booktrailer Review

Susan:

I wish the Lesley Pearse covers better represented what was inside as I almost didn’t read this until it was recommended for being a harrowing and fascinating real story. Lesley is not a writer who’s afraid of getting in the nitty gritty of a subject and I found this book a real eye opener. The story behind the story is fascinating and I admire Lesley for writing about such a tricky subject in such an accessible way.

This story was quite something and Lesley has that power of drawing you in and making you gasp. She has real affinity with her characters and everything is so real. Everything her characters went through and the trauma they suffered and how they struggled to overcome events was quite remarkable..no spoilers here though

This is a remarkable journey and one which takes them a little further than the map above, but some of this journey has to be discovered as you read.