This is the story of 25-year-old Mary Bryant who led the most daring escape ever from Australian prison colony known as Botany Bay.
Mary's escape from Botany Bay closely follows known historical details, but no one really knows how a young uneducated woman with a todlar and infant in arms convinced eight men to go with her, let alone how they successfully sailed 3,500 miles in an open boat to a Dutch colony in Indonesia--which they actually did. I have attempted to show Mary as a woman with a practical nature, able to plan and acquire what was needed to succeed at such a risky venture, and with finely honed instincts that the men who joined her in the escape apparently trusted. Her thoughts and feelings, unrecorded and so necessarily fictionalized, imagine the qualities and courage that it takes for any woman at any time in history to take charge of her life and effect her own liberation.
Excerpt
Opening sentence:
Was it Mary Broad's upbringing that caused her to to what she'd done, for which she was subjected to hang, and more?
Professional Reviews
Far From Botany Bay
“...Mary is...not mere fiction. In real life, 1787, she was a Cornish convict, one of the first to be sent to a fledgling prison colony in Australia and, four years later, she was one of the first to lead a successful escape. Some escape! At sea for sixty-six days and traveling five thousand kilometers, she led eight men, with her two babes in arm, as they rowed and sailed a 20-foot longboat through the infamous Coral Sea, bristling with the reefs that had wrecked many a ship. Her ultimate goal was Kupang, on the island of Timor in Dutch-controlled Indonesia, and armed with compass and chart, she led them right to it. En route they survived starvation, thirst, aggressive natives, a violent storm, crocodiles and illness. While doing all this, Mary also had to pander to her insecure husband’s sulks at not being leader, do the cooking, wash the dishes, and put the children to bed. Sound familiar?
The escape is by far the most gripping part of the book, but most of us...will avidly read on, wanting a happy ending for this feisty young woman who was shipped off to purgatory at 21, raped repeatedly, and finally married a drunken lout she didn’t love in order to protect herself. We love to read about the female super achiever who, even though she’s victimized and battered, rises up again and again.” Cherie Thiessen, BC Book World, Summer 2008
A poignant story about letting go of a narcissist in your life. Have you ever been attacked FULL force by a narcissist? It's the closest thing to being stabbed over and over in the back.
Spoken Word
This CD will touch the deepest inner part of your humanness and spirit, you will never be the same after listening to the depths of struggle, the reality of life, the touching voice of truth. It will shock you, move you to tears. It w
