A mostly true, though somewhat embroidered, but highly entertaining, epic saga of a pair of ill-matched 18th Century English teenagers. Mary Bateman,14, is a survivor bought from an orphanage by a notorious, but hilariously awful Elizabeth Sully madam of a London brothel for paedophiles. Feisty Mary reluctantly becomes a whore-thief, is caught and sentenced to death for theft - but commuted to a lesser punishment - deportation. The countless men in her life include a gypsy onion-seller, Jose, a rent-boy fop, Jamie-boy - her great love - her 'sea-husband', Archie and sturdy, 17 year old naïve farm-boy, George Guest. Readied to hang for pig-rustling but reprieved at the very last minute, he is transported to Botany Bay, Australia. Jamie-boy, George and Mary are crammed into cruel convict transporters, he in the First Fleet, she on 'The Whore-ship', Lady Juliana. They endure pathos, privation, cruelty, perversion, rape, murder, jealousy, tragedy, heady adventure, deadly dangers. And there is sex - lots of it! Some quite bizarre. But there is, too, much comedy - even farce - for is not that the flip-side of tragedy? Their absorbing saga teems with an array of stunning characters: whores, madams, paedophiles, psychopaths, highwaymen, gentry, even royalty, ex-slaves turned bushrangers, bigoted judges, dodgy lawyers, thugs (often female), 'sea-husbands', castrati, aborigines, sadistic gaolers, saints and sinners, criminals galore - and, if that were not enough, the supernatural. With deadly foes hell-bent on their ruin, the teens and their staunch friends are finally thrown together by fate but en route - via Tenerife, Rio, Cape Verde, Cape Town - they must engage in epic battles to simply survive in a faraway and pitiless new world. One will prosper...one will die horribly...the other...?
About the Author: Robert Brow (Rob) is an Edinburgh Scot. In 1949 he, his sister and parents sailed to Melbourne, Australia, though family connections with Victoria go back as far as the 1840s. He attended the Royal High School of Edinburgh, alma mater of Sir Walter Scott, Alexander Graham Bell, Lachlan Macquarie, an early Governor of N.S.W. He started teaching at an all (wayward) girls school and left not because of the teenagers but he couldn't stand some of the more conservative teachers! Life as a thespian appealed and he performed in such plays as 'Under Milkwood', 'Romeo and Juliet' and as the lead in 'Tea and Sympathy' and even appeared in Stanley Kramer's movie, "On The Beach". Television began in Australia and Rob was intrigued - starting at the bottom pushing scenery he soon turned his hand as a cameraman, floor manager and screen writer of drama where he met Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter before becoming TV and Radio produce /writer in several leading advertising agencies in Melbourne, Sydney and London, including JWT, Grey and Sharp-McManus working with such luminaries as Ronnies Corbett and Barker, Derek Nimmo, Maurice Denham, Jack Thompson, Pamela Stevenson. He even caught himself advising the great Jimmy Connors how to serve at tennis! As Program Manager of a TV station he also wrote and produced comedy skits and documentaries. Returning to Oz Rob became a director/producer/writer of film/TV production and started his own company in Melbourne and moved into documentary work culminating in "The Country Editor", "The Fighting Gunditzmara", "Other Mothers" and "Keeping Up With The Jones", which he co-wrote, directed and produced. All were seen in cinemas and on TV. As a result he was commissioned to produce documentaries and TV Programmes on various social subjects, of wrongs to be righted. Since moving to Queensland with his family in 1987 he has written numerous documentary and movie scripts and was asked to lecture on film writing to adult classes. Learning of his wife's rambunctious convict family history he was fascinated by the story of her (multi) grand parents, Mary and George and has spent years researching and traveling to the places which touched their lives. Residing for long periods in London and the U.S Nola and Rob 'retired' to Brisbane, Australia, have two beloved children, Justin and Natasha, seven adored grandchildren, a rickety old Polly Dog and two neurotic felines.