Award-winning writer and WestWords Creative Producer Alexandria Burnham’s debut novel ‘Swallow’ will be released in November 2025, after she announced in May that WestWords Books acquired publishing rights.
‘Swallow’: Australia’s Untold Story
The novel is set in the 1820’s with everything you could want in a good historical fiction: pirates, romance, high stakes, comedy and un-put-downable adventures.
Through Burnham’s expressive writing, it explores an intricate love on land and the conflagrant heart that lies at sea. It is the true story of runaway Australian convict William Swallow.
“The Cyprus welcomed me below with a rocking embrace. I breathed in her intoxicating scent of lacquer and vinegar. And with the familiar sensation of the ocean’s sway, strength was already returning to my muscles, like the unfurling of wings.
I reached my hand out to her bulkhead. Felt my skin meet hers for the first time. I closed my eyes. The Cyprus begged for me to take her, and I was never one to leave a lover wanting.”
(‘Swallow’, pp24)
‘Swallow’ is described as one of Australia’s most romantic untold stories, so what inspired Burnham to finally tell it?
In 2017, researcher Nick Russell was the first to make the connection between the convict Swallow and the arrival of a foreign ship in Mugi, a small Japanese town.
“I read that, and I’m like, that’s fascinating!” said Burnham. She swiftly fell down a rabbit hole, researching what little information there is about Swallow and his adventures, and soon she began to question why there wasn’t any fiction about him.

Tokuno Takashi, head curator at the Tokushima Prefecture Archives with Burnham viewing the Hamaguchi manuscript, Japan. Photo by Jai Groth, 2025.
Amidst the Covid-19 lockdowns, the idea had been brewing to craft Swallow’s story herself. Burnham set about completing the first draft, immersing herself in the writing for three months, which she described as a “crazy marathon fever dream writing experience”.
The True Story and the Story Retold
As with all historical fictions there is a line between truth and fantasy which often becomes blurred.
William Swallow, who Burnham describes as Australia’s “very own Jack Sparrow figure” was exceedingly successful at weaving intricate fallacies, rendering the small amount of evidence he existed near impossible to sort through.
In the author’s note at the back of the novel, Burnham wrote, “This is a great outcome for a man trying to escape prosecution, but an absolute pain for anyone trying to write his story 200 years later. But he and I have something in common. We take the lies, and spin plot from them.”
This was a challenge she did not take up lightly.
Burnham got in contact with Warwick Hirst, who had written a non-fiction work detailing the Cyprus mutiny attributed to Swallow. He shipped to her photocopies of newspaper clippings, court transcripts and all the hard research he possessed. Burnham said this was her “bible” whilst researching Swallow’s life — “this wonderful orange, massive dossier”.

The first time Burnham viewed Warwick Hirst’s research. Photo by Nate Gothard, 2021.
Reading two-hundred-year-old handwriting was no small task, however, and Burnham required the help of a freelance transcriber. When she received the transcriptions of Swallow’s testimony, it was then a matter of comparing it with Nick Russell’s research and Warwick Hirst’s work and navigating discrepancies between them.
One aspect of any historical figure’s story always difficult to decipher is motive. But when it comes to the tale of Swallow, researchers seem to agree that if he’d merely wanted to escape he would have made more logical decisions. “But no,” said Burnham, “he wanted to get back to his wife and children.”
“But there was a world out there. Susie and my children were on the other side of this ocean. I couldn’t sacrifice them to the brink. They were my lighthouse — the glimmer of safety to guide me through the dangers. Somehow, they stood tall in the storm, present and enduring, even when I dashed myself against the rocks, and the likes of John.
I would not die until I was with them, but I couldn’t live without them. That was the true purgatory.”
(‘Swallow’, pp50)
Inspired by the “tragically romantic” nature of his story, Burnham immersed herself in the world of sailing. Stephen Gapps, a retired Maritime Museum curator, became her “go-to sailing guy”. He read through her manuscript to ensure all terminology and details were accurate.
She admits she took artistic liberties with exact dates, the order of events in the lead-up to the mutiny and other minor details.
But she said, “I tried to be as true to history as possible.”

Burnham and fellow writer Ally Bodnaruk laid flowers on William Swallow’s grave at the Isle of the Dead, Port Arthur. Photo by Jai Groth, 2024.
‘Swallow’: A Trilogy
This book is one of three to come, with two years between each release. The sequel to ‘Swallow’ will explore the Japan leg of the journey, which Burnham has been avidly preparing for.

Viewing the Hamaguchi manuscript at the Tokushima Prefecture Archives, Japan. Photo by Ally Bodnaruk, 2025.
Burnham had the opportunity to visit Japan in August to meet Nick Russell in person and see Mugi Bay.
“Book Two is going to be really complex,” said Burnham. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of making that work.”
In the meantime, Burnham is progressing with a few projects, “scratching all (her) screenplay itches”, as well as further adding to the ongoing world of ‘Metropius’.
You can follow Burnham on Instagram or preorder ‘Swallow’ here.
Read Part 2 here.