26-year-old Scottish prostitute staked out her space and began her night's work: so begins Sian Rees's fascinating history of the 200-odd women convicts--disorderly girls--who, at the very end of the 1780s, found themselves condemned to Transportation to Parts Beyond the Seas. The Floating Brothel is a compelling and readable account of that moment in penal history when transportation from England to the colonies (in this case, New South Wales) was a commonplace alternative to the death sentence. Taking her readers into the squalor of Newgate Prison, and the arcane injustices of the Old Bailey, Rees follows the traces of these women's lives--lives marked by obscurity, loneliness and exploitation as well as the shoddy glamour of 18th-century London. In particular, Rees's account of life on board the Lady Julian--the ship that takes this band of convicts and crew across the world--paints a vivid picture of the complex relations between women destined to become colony wives (sexual comforters, breeding banks) and the men charged with delivering this special cargo. As soon as they were at sea, Rees quotes one of her primary sources, John Nicol, every man on board took a wife from among the convicts, they nothing loath. One of the strengths of Rees's approach is her refusal to evaluate 18th-century sex and sensibility in terms of modern consciousness. Nevertheless, the everyday trials and passions of her protagonists--notably, the experience of pregnancy and labour on board a convict vessel--comes through this remarkable testimony to forgotten lives. --Vicky Lebeau
Advantages: Interesting true story of a convict ship, detailed coverage of court records, readable Disadvantages: Some details inevitably speculative
...sail for Botany Bay to address Governor Phillip's needs. Her cargo of 237 women convicts had been procured by emptying the female cells of gaols in London and across the country. Her year-long voyage would include stops at Tenerife, the Cape Verde Islands, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town. Her eventual arrival at her destination would not be quite as welcome as might have been predicted.
SiānRees has used diverse contemporary records to research in detail the characters that comprised the ship's human cargo, their probable experiences at sea and what became of them on arrival.
The extensive use of court records in the early chapters provides the reader with an overwhelming amount of detail. It is skilfully presented in a way which brings out the diversity of cases involved, and engenders sympathy for many of the convict characters...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Easy to read Disadvantages: Some parts are rubbish
...I feel this book should have been much better. I sense that some aspects and ideas were not explained as much as they could have been. I am currently studying A-level and am confident in my knowledge of Physics. However, I still found parts a little challenging. This book reaches toward the future and brings to you, through this book, what the universe will be like and how it was. I did like this book despite what I have said. Martin Rees ' newer books haven't been up to scratch but this one just creeps into my good books....
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average off topic
Advantages: Fantastic book and very interesting Disadvantages: Rather long
...This book was written by Laurence Rees, who is a highly acclaimed author and broadcaster. The book essentially accompanies the major TV series. The book was published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. It does provide a definitive history of the most notorious Nazi institution of them all- Auschwitz.
'Auschwitz' covers the growth of the camp and how it evolved from a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners into the site of the largest mass murder in history, where around a million Jews were exterminated.
Rees does examine the Holocaust in its broader context too, and argues that the camp played a uniquely important role as a institution in the Nazi state, which cumulminated in such a vital role in the Final Solution.
The book does examine the mentality...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
10.05.2005
20.07.2000
08.07.2008
