My name, then, is Barnaby Fletch. To the best of my knowledge I have no middle name and cannot say of whom I am the son, or of whom my father's father's father was the son. Alas, my origins are shrouded in mystery.<br/><br/>Thirteen - year - old Barnaby Fletch is a bag - and - bones orphan in London in the late 1700s.<br/><br/>Barnaby lives on his wits and ill - gotten gains, on streets seething with the press of the throng and shadowed by sinister figures. Life is a precarious business.<br/><br/>When he hears of a paradise on the other side of the world - a place called Botany Bay - he decides to commit a crime and get himself transported to a new life, a better life.<br/><br/>To succeed, he must survive the trials of Newgate Prison, the stinking hull of a prison ship and the unknown terrors of a journey across the world.<br/><br/>And Botany Bay is far from the paradise Barnaby has imagined. When his past and present suddenly collide, he is soon fleeing for his life - once again.<br/><br/>A riveting story of courage, hope and extraordinary adventure.