Sian Rees

A seafaring story with a twist -- the incredible voyage of a shipload of "disorderly girls" and the men who transported them, fell for them, and sold them. This riveting work of rediscovered history tells for the first time the plight of the female convicts aboard the Lady Julian, which set sail from England in 1789 and arrived in Australia's Botany Bay a year later. The women, most of them petty criminals, were destined for New South Wales to provide its hordes of lonely men with sexual favors as well as progeny. But the story of their voyage is even more incredible, and here it is expertly told by a historian with roots in the boatbuilding business and a true love of the sea. SiGn Rees delved into court documents and firsthand accounts to extract the stories of these women's experiences on board a ship that both held them prisoner and offered them refuge from their oppressive existence in London. At the heart of the story is the passionate relationship between Sarah Whitelam, a convict, and the ship's steward, John Nicol, whose personal journals provided much of the material for this book. Along the way, Rees brings the vibrant, bawdy world of London -- and the sights, smells, and sounds of an eighteenth-century ship -- vividly to life. In the tradition of Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, this is a winning combination of dramatic high seas adventure and untold history.

The Extraordinary True Story of an Eighteenth-Century Ship and Its Cargo of Female Convicts

The Floating Brothel

Brilliant, intensely political, and inseparable for nearly 70 years, Lucie Aubrac and her husband, Raymond, are legendary figures of the French Resistance. Founding leaders of Libération-Sud, one of the most important resistance movements in France, they ran the underground newspaper Libération and served as couriers, arms carriers, and saboteurs. In 1943, when the Gestapo captured and imprisoned Raymond, Lucie engineered a daring plan to rescue him from the clutches of Klaus Barbie, the feared Gestapo chief later known as the “Butcher of Lyon.” When Raymond was arrested again, Lucie mounted a second astonishing rescue, ambushing the prison van that was transporting him. Secreted out of France with her husband by the Royal Air Force, Lucie arrived in London a heroine. For the post-war generation, the couple embodied the spirit of “the real France”—the one that resisted, and eventually expelled, the Nazis. However, in 1983, Klaus Barbie made the bombshell claim that the Aubracs had become informers in 1943, betraying their comrades. The French press and the couple themselves furiously denounced the allegation, which was also disproven by historians, but Lucie was found “guilty” by many of embellishments and inconsistencies in the tales she weaved around herself. Who was Lucie Aubrac? What did she really do in 1943? And was she truly the spirit of la vraie France? Siân Rees’s penetrating account—the first full English-language biography of this extraordinary woman—provides a long-needed corrective to Lucie Aubrac’s own admittedly “impressionistic” memoir and a fascinating exploration of the intersection of history, legend, and mythologizing.

The French Resistance Heroine Who Outwitted the Gestapo

Lucie Aubrac

Taylor & Francis Group

Public Relations, Branding and Authenticity: Brand Communications in the Digital Age explores the role of PR and branding in society by considering the notion of authentic communications within the context of an emerging digital media environment. This qualitative analysis explores the challenge of developing authentic brand narratives in the digital age, whilst questioning the problematic nature of authenticity itself. Case studies of public relations activity of successful brands, and those in crisis, are supplemented by interviews with senior public relations and branding practitioners. The book lays out three specific arguments. Firstly, a repositioning of the relationship between public relations and brand practice is explored. It is argued that public relations practitioners are well placed to facilitate brands in the digital age, because of the inherent acceptance of the value of relationship building, adaptation and boundary spanning embedded in PR practice and best practice theory. Secondly, the book introduces a new concept of riparian brands. Such brands are based on solid core values, but have an ability to atune, adjust and naturalise to the prevailing social, cultural and economic environment. Thirdly, the book presents an ontology of the riparian brand in the form of an authentic brand wheel and 15 real-time interaction success factors. Aimed at both academics and practitioners interested in the theoretical development of PR and its emerging relationship with branding, it will also be of interest to scholars of corporate communications, corporate reputation and branding.

Brand Communications in the Digital Age

Public Relations, Branding and Authenticity

Mark Redknap

Alan Aberg

An ambitious and extremely comprehensive reference book with hundreds of colour photos, presenting the whole of Wales' maritime history.

Wales and the Sea - 10,000 Years of Welsh Maritime History

'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.

Sian Rees

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