An author who lives halfway across the world, but who retains a special affinity for the Isle of Man, has just released her fourth novel.

Patricia Kelly released ’Beyond the Seas’ from her home in Australia earlier this month.

Set during the 18th century, the book is a harrowing tale of the journey faced by convicted women from the British Isles to the penal colonies of Australia.

’Beyond the Seas’ tells the story of Alice Moore, an 11-year-old orphan from Castletown who is forced to steal food to survive.

When she is repeatedly caught, she is sent to London to be transported to Australia on board the ’Lady Juliana’ which carried only female convicts, half of which were prostitutes.

After a terrible journey, she lands at Port Jackson and has to fight to survive.

What links this book and Patricia’s other novels, is that each story begins in the Isle of Man.

Patricia married Mike Kelly, a former Manx Grand Prix rider and spent many years living in the island before moving out to the warmer climes down under.

She began writing whilst living on the Isle of Man and released her first book, ’Hedge of Thorns’, in 1993, which based on the experiences of her mother-in-law, during the First World War.

’I had always been keen on writing, but had never gone very far with it,’ said Patricia.

’I was pretty much alone in the Isle of Man when I lived there, and I didn’t know anyone other than Mike’s family, so I spent quite a bit of time with his mother, Lou, who was 81 at the time.

’She talked a lot about her childhood, as she had grown up in Patrick during the First World War when the internment camp was built at Knockaloe.

’It occurred to me one day that I was listening to history and that she was telling me things that no one else alive could tell.

’I thought that, if she were to die, all that history would be lost.

So I took a large notepad with me whenever to see her, and took note of everything she said.

’From that, my first book, Hedge of Thorns, was born and proved very popular.

’It was originally launched in 1993 and I relaunched it last year and it is doing quite well second time around.’

Patricia released her second book, Smuggler’s Urchin’, during the same year, based on the Manx smuggling trade, which was also relaunched ealier this year.

The life of the itinerant Manx ex-pat clearly struck a chord with Patricia after she and Mike made the move across the world, and she released her third book, ’Shadow of the Wheel’, about a family of Laxey miners who move to South Africa, last year.

All of Patricia’s books are available to buy online from Amazon as kindle editions or as paperbacks.

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers