A remarkable story of resilience, heartbreak, and ultimately triumph follows a young woman's international travels after she is deported to Botany Bay in Australia for stealing a woman's bonnet and manages to find her way home again after a long ordeal. On a moonless night in the early 1790s, prisoner Mary Bryant, her husband William, her two small children, and seven other convicts stole a twenty-foot longboat and slipped noiselessly out of Sydney Cove, Australia, eluding their captors. They sailed north, all the way to Indonesia, traveling some thirty-six hundred treacherous miles in ten weeks-- an incredible feat of seamanship. For a time, Mary and her companions were able to convince the local Dutch colonial authorities that they were survivors of a shipwreck, but eventually the truth emerged and they found themselves back in captivity, in irons, on their way to England for execution. In time, Mary's fateful journey would win her tremendous admiration. A woman once reviled as a criminal would become a London celebrity, ultimately finding forgiveness and freedom. In The Girl from Botany Bay, distinguished historian and biographer Carolly Erickson tells Mary Bryant's remarkable story at full length for the first time-- the story of a woman whose impoverished Cornwall childhood led to a life of outlaw daring and thievery, then to harsh imprisonment and exile. Erickson recounts Mary's bold ventures from her point of view, beginning with her conviction and death sentence for highway robbery. Reprieved, she was sent to New South Wales to serve out her time, one of dozens of female convicts chosen as sexual companions for the hundreds of male convicts destined for settlement in the remote continent of Australia. From Mary's perilous sea journey to Botany Bay and Sydney Cove, to the inhuman conditions at the penal colony, to the risky escape to the Indonesian island of Timor and the horrors of the sail back to England-- during which Mary's husband and two children died of disease-- the story is harrowing yet heroic. With the dramatic narrative skill for which she is acclaimed, Erickson brings Mary and her companions to life in compelling detail. All the dangers of seafaring adventure are here: violent storms, near drownings, severe hunger and thirst, and the perils of relentless exposure to sun, wind, and salt spray that left the convicts with their skin scraped raw and their strength leached away. When she finally landed in England and testified before the magistrate's court, Mary was magnificent in her own defense. No one had the heart to condemn her; had she not, through her suffering, paid for her crimes? Impressed by Mary's sturdy self-possession and courage, lawyer and author James Boswell came to her rescue, ensuring that "the Girl from Botany Bay," as the newspapers called her, was freed and able to begin a new life.

Acclaim for Carolly Erickson "Carolly Erickson is one of the most accomplished and successful historical biographers writing in English." -The Times Literary Supplement The First Elizabeth "Even more readable and absorbing than the justly praised works of Tuchman and Fraser. A vivid and eminently readable portrait of history's favorite Tudor." -The New York Times Book Review "A masterpiece of narrative, a story so absorbing it is as hard to put down as a fine novel." -Los Angeles Times Book Review Alexandra "Gifted . . . breathless . . . heartbreaking . . . Erickson excels." -Chicago Tribune Josephine "An intimate, richly detailed, and candid portrait . . . [Erickson's] scholarly insights combine superbly with a mastery of period manners more often found in the best historical fiction." -Kirkus Reviews Mistress Anne "Carolly Erickson is a most admirable biographer, and this book is highly enjoyable as well as being reliable and acute; indeed, it is popular historical biography at its best." -The Times (London)

This novel tells the true story of Mary Bryant, a spirited girl in 18th century England, who is sentenced to a prison ship bound for Australia but makes a harrowing escape. Caught stealing a lady's bonnet in Cornwall, England, in 1786, 19-year-old Mary Broad is sentenced to seven years' incarceration on a prison ship bound for Australia. Amid squalid, dangerous conditions below decks, Mary fights for her life and her dignity, and her spirited, outspoken ways rally her fellow prisoners. She also attracts the attention of Watkin Tench, a marine who helps her get food and clothing and whose child she eventually bears. But Tench will not marry her, and Mary is betrothed to Will Bryant, another convict whom she'd known as a child.

Madness stalked the colony of New South Wales and tracing its wild path changes the way we look at our colonial history. What happened when people went mad in the fledgling colony of New South Wales? In this important new history, we find out through the tireless correspondence of governors and colonial secretaries, the delicate descriptions of judges and doctors, the brazen words of firebrand politicians, and the heartbreaking letters of siblings, parents and friends. We also hear from the mad themselves. Legal and social distinctions faded as delusion and disorder took root — in convicts exiled from their homes and living under the weight of imperial justice, in ex-convicts and small settlers as they grappled with the country they had taken from its Indigenous inhabitants, and in government officers and wealthy colonists who sought to guide the course of European history in Australia. These stories of madness are woven together into a narrative about freedom and possibilities, unravelling and collapse. Bedlam at Botany Bay looks at people who found themselves not only at the edge of the world, but at the edge of sanity. It shows their worlds colliding.

For the crime of robbing a wealthy woman of a silk bonnet and a few guineas, an illiterate Cornish woman faces the hangman's noose. Her death sentence is commuted; instead she finds herself transported in chains on the First Fleet to Botany Bay, New South Wales to serve seven years penal servitude. So begins the extraordinary but true story of legendary Mary Bryant, the only female convict to escape from Botany Bay and whose open-boat escape voyage with her husband, two children and seven other convicts, must rank along with Captain Bligh's as one of the most amazing and courageous in history. Unlike any other biography published on Mary Bryant, author Jonathan King brings the story of this remarkable woman to life by stepping into her shoes. King unfolds Mary's development from a simple, poor Cornish girl to a woman who experienced more in her first twenty-eight years than many in their entire lives.

Michele A. Connolly's postcolonial analysis links the Gospel of Mark - produced in the context of the Roman Empire - with contemporary Australia, established initially as a colony of the British Empire. Feminist analysis of texts from two foundational events in Australian colonial history reveal that women in such texts tend to be marginalised, silenced and denigrated. Connolly posits that imperialist sexism, both ancient and modern, perceives women as a threat to the order that males alone can impose on the world. The Gospel of Mark portrays Jesus bringing the order of the Reign of God to combat the disorder of apocalyptic evil. Jesus' task is a markedly male project, against which eleven female characters are portrayed as disorderly distractions who are managed by being marginalised, silenced and denigrated, contradicting Jesus' message of mutual service and non-domination. In his death under apocalyptic power, Jesus is likewise depicted as isolated, silenced and denigrated, subtly associating femininity with chaos, failure and disgrace.