The Sarsaparilla Souvenir is fiction based on the true story of the life of Mary Broad, a girl from Cornwall, who becomes a First Fleet convict exiled from her home. Through her courage, determination and intelligence she organizes the first successful escape from Port Jackson with her husband, William Bryant and their two children, four-year-old Charlotte and one-year-old Emmanuel. They are accompanied by seven other convicts, escaping in Governor Phillips cutter, making a voyage along the east coast of Australia to West Timor, a navigational feat said to be equal in brilliance to that of the Bligh voyage after the mutiny on the Bounty. In so doing Mary shines as the 'one who got away' - the first female convict expatriate of Australia. Although they defy storms, starvation, thirst and savage aborigines to succeed in this endeavor, betrayal within their own ranks leads to their recapture. During the course of their shipment back to Newgate Prison, six of the party die, including Will Bryant and the two children. Upon Mary’s much publicized return, James Boswell, lawyer and biographer of Sir Samuel Johnson, takes an interest in her case, assisting in obtaining her release and that of the remaining convicts, whereupon they must re-enter English life.
While these are the main events in the story, the historical facts are the bare bones of The Sarsaparilla Souvenir. This is not just another convict life. She is the female Ned Kelly we have been looking for.
The four-part structure of The Sarsaparilla Souvenir mirrors Mary’s emotional voyage. From loss of innocence and liberty, she sinks into the criminal world of prison hulk and convict ship, sailing down to be submerged in the antipodean destitution and subjugated within the impregnable confines of Port Jackson. The process of surfacing once more is played out in the emotional buffeting she takes from the lofty success of their escape, plunging to the depths of despair with their recapture and the deaths of her children, till she finally climbs to acceptance in her defeat. Along with her unexpected freedom in Part Four, Mary finds hope and a future in which she can soar.
The Sarsaparilla Souvenir is a story with all the elements of epic drama, covering the full gamut of emotions as expressed through the strengths and weaknesses of the characters. Its appeal lies in the very ordinary human heart withstanding great suffering, in the very ordinary human being struggling and defeating an unjust and brutal system, and in the knowledge that two frail sarsaparilla leaves, relics of this great adventure, now rest quietly on a shelf in the Library of New South Wales two hundred years later, having survived an equally remarkable voyage. The fact that this is so defies sunny logic but brings Starlight to our Blackest Night.
