A Long Way Home: The Life And Adventures Of The Convict Mary Bryant

Born a fisherman's daughter in 18th Century Cornwall, poverty and ambition drove Mary Broad to become a daring highwaywoman. Arrested and tried, she was sentenced to be transported on the first convict fleet sent to the unknown continent of Australia. Despite brutality and starvation, she survived, married and had children and, with her husband, Will Bryant, stole an open boat and sailed 3,500 miles over unknown oceans to escape to Timor. Here she was captured by the sadistic Captain Edwards, who was hunting the Bounty mutineers, and returned, under appalling conditions, to Britain where she faced certain death in the execution yard at Newgate prison.

"A Long Way Home" tells the incredible and heart rending story of Mary and of the two extraordinary men whose lives became entangled with hers: the navel spy and brilliant seaman, Captain Arthur Phillip, who founded the first colony in Australia and James Boswell, rakehell and biographer, who, at the end of a misspent life, found a cause worth fighting for.

"A Long Way Home" is a real life historical thriller.

Mike Walker takes us on a journey from a tiny village in Cornwall, through the criminal stews of Georgian London, to the hold of a disease-ridden convict ship and on to the far end of the Earth. Then, in an isolated prison colony with only a few weeks of supplies between it and starvation we follow Mary Broad on a 3000 mile journey in a 20 foot boat from freedom to shipwreck and re-incarceration in a London prison cell where she faces the death sentence for the second time, or the possibility of starting the terrible experience all over again. Her salvation comes in the unlikely form of James Boswell, lawyer and gentleman who defends her case and wins her freedom.

Mary Broad's story is brought to life in Mike Walker's hands with the help of original diaries, state records and newspapers describing the conditions and events of the day, and the incredible hardships and losses suffered by our heroine.