BACKGROUND TO THE NOVEL:
Over thirty thousand British and Irish women were incarcerated in the bowels of convict ships and taken to Australia on the other side of the world. Irrespective as to their characters and degree of their crimes, these women effectively became 'the mothers of the Australian nation.'
Eighteen year old Sarah Dunleavy leaves her father’s drapery at Southampton to take an appointment as nurse to the children of Admiral Ellsworth in the year of 1829. When one of her charges is raped, she thrashes the perpetrator with a walking stick, is charged with Criminal Assault and sentenced to transportation for life to New South Wales.
Surviving the long voyage in the bowels of a convict ship, Sarah is sent down the river to the notorious Female Factory at Parramatta and assigned work at the Orphan School. Here she meets a dray driver, handsome young Irish convict, Jeremy Hutton, and they fall in love.
From respectability and a loving family in England to the dark prisons of New South Wales, Sarah Dunleavy fights for survival and the love of the only person that matters in a world of death and degradation
Over thirty thousand British and Irish women were incarcerated in the bowels of convict ships and taken to Australia on the other side of the world. Irrespective as to their characters and degree of their crimes, these women effectively became 'the mothers of the Australian nation.'
Eighteen year old Sarah Dunleavy leaves her father’s drapery at Southampton to take an appointment as nurse to the children of Admiral Ellsworth in the year of 1829. When one of her charges is raped, she thrashes the perpetrator with a walking stick, is charged with Criminal Assault and sentenced to transportation for life to New South Wales.
Surviving the long voyage in the bowels of a convict ship, Sarah is sent down the river to the notorious Female Factory at Parramatta and assigned work at the Orphan School. Here she meets a dray driver, handsome young Irish convict, Jeremy Hutton, and they fall in love.
From respectability and a loving family in England to the dark prisons of New South Wales, Sarah Dunleavy fights for survival and the love of the only person that matters in a world of death and degradation
