In 1786 a fisherman's daughter from Cornwall called Mary Broad was sentenced to be hung for theft. But her sentence was commuted, and she was transported to Australia, one of the first convicts to arrive there. How Mary escaped the harsh existence of the colony and found true love, and how she was captured and taken back to London in chains, only to be released after a trial where she was defended by no less than James Boswell, is one of the most gripping and moving stories of human endeavour (based on an amazing true story) you will ever read.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Lesley Pearse's novels have sold five million copies worldwide. Her fourteen most recent books, including Belle and Stolen - both of which went to Number One - are huge bestsellers and available as Penguin paperbacks. Lesley lives near Bristol and has three daughters and two grandchildren.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Story of Survival and Faith-Based on a True Story-A+++!,
By
This review is from: Remember Me (Paperback)
This story was based on a true story that happened back in the year 1786. It took place in Austrailia.
Mary Broad was only 18 years of age, when in terrible poverty, she steals a silk hat. For that small crime, she was sentenced to death as it says in the beginning of the book. However, at the last minute she gets a break from hanging, and is instead, sentenced to 7 years of transportation. The fate though, is almost as horrifying as death, in that these prisoners in transportation live in VERY deplorable conditions. The only thing Mary can do is have courage and be determined to live one day to the next. And that is exactly what she does, and is of lots of help and a friend to her fellow prisoners. Throughout the story, there is birth of children, escape, and death. I highly recommend the book.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Author gets points for sticking to the facts but the lack of emotion pulls down what should have been a highly charged book,
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This review is from: Remember Me (Paperback)
It was a completely miraculous situation that I found this book because only days before I had been thinking about the man character in it, Mary Broad, who I first read about in the historical biography The Girl From Botany Bay by now fiction writer Carolly Erickson. Then, when bouncing around on Amazon one day I found this novel, "Remember Me" by Lesley Pearse. Naturally I had to read it.
"Remember me" is the tale of Mary Broad, one of the very first convicts to settle in the penal colony of Australia and more importantly-a woman who managed to escape to a Dutch trading colony 3,000 miles away in an open boat with her two small children and eight men. This novel is very true to the actual facts of Mary's life. She was imprisoned for highway robbery (really she stole a hat but on a street so technically she robbed someone on a highway) and was sentenced to hang only to have her sentence changed like so many others to seven years transportation. But with the war in America over there was no place to put the convicts, meaning Mary spent time on the infamous prison hulks before the great experimental transport of convicts so many thousands of miles to a completely unknown and uncharted Australia. But this book for all the story it is telling was sensational, full of drama, terror, adventure, romance...this novel is kind of flat. I've never read anything by Lesley Pearse before so I don't know if this is indicative of her typical style but "Remember Me" just came off as kind of emotionless to me in spite of all of the highly emotional content. This could be because I knew all the facts of the story ahead of time and there was no deviation from them in the book so with the lack of emotion it was like reading the biography again only with dialog. I was also disappointed with the lack of detail in the novel but that is probably because after reading Colleen McCullough's Morgan's Run which is about the exact same time period (only it covers the Norfolk Island experiment also) almost anything will seem lacking in detail. But still, for me fiction is more interesting to read than a biography so while I did like this a little bit more than "The Girl from Botany Bay" (as Mary Broad eventually became known) I can't say the novelized version contained a whole lot more emotion but it was true to the facts. I have one more book by Lesley Pearse so I hope that this isn't her usual style-or maybe it would be different if I didn't know the whole story in advance. I don't know. But she seems to have a huge following in the UK so I'll hold out hope. Three stars. If you want any more details on Mary Broad or the transportation story in general check out the books above.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quick, straight-forward read.,
By
This review is from: Remember Me (Paperback)
It's 1786 in England and Mary Broad is guilty of stealing a hat. Instead of being hung, she is transported to a new colony in Australia.
On her journeys, Mary takes care of everyone around her. It didn't take long for me to get annoyed by her "too good to be true" behavior. She was also getting away with being snarky and demanding without punishment. Yes, she is smarter than everyone else. Again and again, it's pointed out by the narrator or even by Mary herself. Mary is smarter than everyone in the ship. Mary is smarter than the marines. Mary is smarter than anyone in the colony. Ugh!!! The writing is very plain, but gets the story across. Yes, I wanted to know what was next in the story, but I wasn't excited or looking forward to it. I didn't NEED to find out what happened next. This book didn't get much emotion out of me for some reason. I still enjoyed the storyline though. A fairly quick, straight-forward read for me.
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