'A miracle of compressed intelligence.' The Times "Rees has pieced together a terrific story... There is nothing about sailing and seamen she doesn't know." Sunday Telegraph "In Rees's hands Porter's story reads like a fictional thriller but imparts the knowledge of a serious historical work." Times Literary Supplement "Relish this ripping, salty yarn... Rees has retold Porter's story with the same panache she showed with her cracking nautical bestseller, The Floating Brothel." Manchester Evening News "A delightful true story." The Express When London thief James Porter was sent to Australia as a convict, he refused that he had lost his freedom. When his first escape attempts failed, he was sent to the horrific penal camps of Van Diemen's Land, where he and nine desperate comrades managed to hijack a boat and cross the perilous South Pacific to Chile. There they passed themselves off as shipwrecked mariners, settled under new identities and settled into the lives of free men. But the British Royal Navy did not take the matter of piracy lightly, and when betrayal led to discovery James Porter's liberty was once again snatched away. Based on Porter's own long-forgotten writings, this is the story of one man's defiance and courage.

Author Biography

Sian Rees was born and brought up in Cornwall, spending much of her childhood in boatyards and at sea. She read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford and then spent a decade travelling and living abroad. Her first book, The Floating Brothel: the extraordinary true story of the Lady Julian and its cargo of female convicts bound for Botany Bay was written after living in Melbourne, Australia, and published in 2001. It was followed by The Shadows of Elisa Lynch: how a nineteenth-century Irish courtesan became the most powerful woman in Paraguay (2003) after a stint in South America, and The Ship Thieves: the true tale of James Porter, colonial pirate (2006). Her next publication, Sweet Water and Bitter: the Ships that Stopped the Slave Trade, will be published by Chatto & Windus in February 2009. She lives in Brighton with her two small sons.