From the Author
My novel begins in 1793 with Kate O'Neal boarding the transport
that would take her to Australia to serve her seven-year sentence
for castrating her employer's son who raped and brutalised her.
Kate has to survive the year-long voyage, and then the remaining
six years of her sentence in a penal colony teeming with men, where
convict women are seen as no better than commodity. Driven by her
will to survive, she first becomes Lieutenant Kendrick's convict
mistress, and when he loses her in a game of cards, Captain
Spencer's "honey pot". The core of her support comes from a group
of friends, her family of strangers.
This is why I have titled my novel, "A Family Of Strangers".