Kosciuszko: The incredible life of the man behind the mountain

by Anthony Sharwood

Heroes are hard to come by - but there's one man whose legend has stood the test of two centuries, and whose name sits on Australia's highest peak. Tadeusz freedom fighter, friend of Thomas Jefferson and champion of liberty on two continents. Bestselling author Anthony Sharwood finds out why he's the hero the world needs right now.

Kosciuszko - our iconic highest mountain - is a name familiar to all Australians. But how many people know who the mountain is named after?

Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who lived from 1746 to 1817, is the most famous person Australians probably know absolutely nothing about. A military engineer, freedom fighter, and champion of human rights, this extraordinary revolutionary was crucial to the success of the American War of Independence, then bravely led an uprising against Russia and other invaders in his native Poland, promising freedom and equality to all who joined his cause.

In his day, Kosciuszko was loved and respected across Europe and America. His great friend Thomas Jefferson called him 'as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known', while Kosciuszko would later challenge Jefferson to live up to the famous words 'All men are created equal' by bequeathing his American funds to free enslaved people, including those on Jefferson's plantation.

Bestselling author Anthony Sharwood (From Snow to Ash; The Brumby Wars) has spent a lifetime walking, skiing and writing about Kosciuszko National Park. Now he sets off on the trail of the man himself, travelling across the USA, Poland and Switzerland to key sites in Kosciuszko's life. Returning to Australia where a potential name change from Mt Kosciuszko to an Indigenous name is hotly debated, he walks with the area's traditional owners and discovers the ancient history of Australia's highest peak.

Kosciuszko's life and legacy is enthralling, inspiring and indispensable. But is that reason enough to keep his name on the mountain?

'Informed, entertaining . . . Sharwood emphasises the deep, genuinely held humanity of his subject' THE AGE

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Australia, Biography Memoir

312 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 25, 2024

Reviews

[Ben Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cracking read. I will be honest and say that this book was not what I thought it would be when I picked it up from my local bookstore. Another example of great storytelling about a topic that is not well understood here in Australia ( I feel like I can speak on behalf of the nation).

Kosciuszko sounds like the type of bloke we could use right about now. How Sharwood links the man, his culture and the mountain across three vastly different countries is top notch!

Great read throughly recommend, even if it’s not a telling of the story of climbing Australia’s tallest mountain!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-fictions can be as dry as anything, but this was light and easy to read. I enjoyed the side quests into different elements of history and philosophy and agreed with many of the author’s opinions. I loved the last few chapters where we were back in Australia and unpacking Indigenous knowledge and voices. My outdoor ed degree taught me much of what was written in those chapters (including some references to my old lecturers!), but my outdoor ed degree taught me nothing of who Kosciuszko was - an interesting omission given the 21 day hike we did around the area.
This should be required reading for any outdoor guide who is working in the Kozzie region and is a really interesting start point for further reading, thanks to the extensive reference list at the end.

My only gripe is the way the author repeats/rephrases some voices and therefore reduces their power.
‘Troy says…you must always greet the ancestors’ (Indigenous voice)
Then on the next page the author says, ‘pay your respects to the ancestors’.
I would have liked to see the people’s original voices highlighted rather than the author’s rephrasing.

[Denita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharwood has done immense research for this book which has been a pleasure to read for one who enjoys history. The book reads like a travel logue interspersed with humour. It was a delight to read and I have learnt so much on the man Kosciuszko.

[Aine Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the ramble through US, Poland and Oz, I found some of the writing too sensational. The thing is, I actually loved his writing style and enjoyed the insights and hearing about the foods and his view on architectural beauty, I even found him funny and likeable, but here is an example of the headline over the top journalistic style he adopts which frankly disappoints me. Having written a wonderful chapter on bogong moths he writes this “Australians are in danger of losing everything that is precious and unique about the High Country, just like that. As if to prove the point, in 2019 the bogong moths stopped coming.” (Page 237). So this is where I go into a tail spin. I was there in 2019 in Spring helping on a school trip. Our guide gave us a taste of one of the plants which was exactly like celery and she told us of the moths in the cracks and how the aboriginals come from different areas and smoke the bogong out and cook them and eat them. She said the paste they make tastes like peanut butter and those who know American snacks know that celery and peanut butter is a popular one for children (well it was when I lived there close to 40 years ago).I was so sad to hear the moths were not making it to the mountains, then on page 242 Sherwood tells us that during the bushfires of 2019 they didn’t make it to the mountains, were placed on the endangered list, but are back now due to the rains. I felt a bit cheated that my heat strings had been rung and my anxiety heightened when at the time of writing he could have finished the first piece telling us how it panned out rather than causing unnecessary fear. If he had just written the piece as a straight forward cautionary tale, it would have been headed with sincere thought and concern.
Overall, I really liked this book so I know I will get over the annoyance and accept that all the authors bias and view points are part of him and as I agreed to read the book for book club so be it.

[Claire Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a biography - more of a travelogue. I appreciated the focus on memorialisation and who we remember and why, but I think I would have preferred a straight biography.

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 5 out of 5]

At his best Anthony writes sublimely. For example, here (P214 in the Hachette edition): "Cootapatamba is one of five small glacial lakes in the shadow of Kosciuszko, each a tiny teardrop lamenting the passing of the Ice Age some 10,000 or more years ago, when glaciers carved cirques, or high shallow valleys shaped like the hollow left behind by an ice cream scoop, that filled with water when a warmer climate returned. All five lakes freeze firm over the whole winter, the only sizeable natural water bodies on mainland Australia to do so".
And this: "Now we are among the snow gums, a hardy variant of Australia's near-ubiquitous eucalypts. Ar their highest reaches, the snow gums are gnarled, stunted, tortured survivors of a thousand winter storms, the smooth bark on their thick trunks rippled with streaks of blood orange, mustard yellow and olive green that turn all the more gaudy when wet. Nothing beats skiing through snow gums". ....or this: "You've never truly appreciated the pure whiteness of snow until you've seen blue and blood-red crimson rosellas fitting among the snow gum branches in a blizzard". He certainly conjures up an accurate image for me. It's poetry.
Though I was well into the book...around Chapter 4 when I started to get the feeling that this book is not really about what is says on the cover: "The incredible life of the man behind the mountain". It is a bit more like Anthony's travel diary, visiting the places where Kosziusko had an impact and, whilst we are at it, recording every plate of rubbery eggs or floury apples that was consumed along the way. And indulging Anthony's musings of the moment.
Mind you, I find that I am pretty much in synch with Anthony's views on most of the subjects that he focuses on: slavery, climate change, equality of people, racism, gun control, the quality of coffee in America, aboriginal rights, gun control, getting brumbies out of the high country, etc It's just that I found myself wondering in many cases..."what does this have to do with Kosciuzsko?"
Yeah, I get it. I read enough non-fiction to know that "accessible" writing follows the formula: personal anecdote ...preferebably about some authority figure that is about to tell all. Then some factual stuff and finally wrap up the chapter with some suitably edifying words. And repeat for all subsequent chapters. Anthony follows the formula but maybe it was stipulated by his publishers. And it kind of works.
Mind you, he does have some gems in there: How about this? "The letter he [Kosciuzsko] wrote to the eighteen-year-old son of his friend Peter Zelner, in whose Swiss household Kosciuszko spent his twilight years:..."Rise at four in the summer and six in the winter. Your first thoughts must be directed towards the Supreme Being; worship Him for a few minutes. Set yourself to work with reflection and intelligence, either at your prescribed duty carried out in the most scrupulous manner, or perfect yourself in some science in which you should have true mastery......Do not argue but seek the truth calmly and with modesty, be polite and considerate to everyone, agreeable and obliging in society, humane and helpful to the unfortunate according to your means. Read instructive books to embellish your mind and improve your spirit.....etc.. It's the sort of good advice that I give to my son for free...but is never acted on. But, as Anthony says: "How good is that? Those are 297 words both sensible and inspirational.........He should have stopped there but unable to help himself he ascends into flights of fantasy about turning the said letter into a cookbook interspersed with uplifting photos such as "the Polish white-tailed eagle soaring over the Baltic plains of Pomerania"..........Really? Most of the book is written in the racy, free-wheeling language of the sports commentator....a variant of the English language. Take this for example: ...a line from a poem:....."'And freedom shrieked as Kosciuszko fell'. The inversion of subject and object in that line is like the old joke about Hollywood tough guy Chuck Norris taking a shower. Not the one about how Chuck Norris doesn't take showers, just blood baths. And not the other one about how Chuck Norris doesn't turn on his shower, he just stares at it till it cries. Freedom shrieking as Kosciuszko fell is like the joke that Chuck Norris doesn't get wet in the shower; the water gets Chuck Norris'd!.....What? It certainly doesn't illuminate the poet's words for me nor do I really want to know about Chuck Norris nor about every other movie that Anthony has watched over his lifetime. I found myself wondering what has this got to do with the subject and how did the editor let this slip by? There is too much of that kind of thing. Admittedly the latter parts of the book are better in this respect.
Actually, only about 60% of the book is really about the life and thoughts of Kosciuszko...the rest of it is Anthony's travel diary about what he had for breakfast, random thoughts along the way and some in-depth investigations of Jefferson and his moral shortcomings. And I contrast this with a similar book published about the same time (2024) titled "Flinders" by Grantlee Kieza, with a similar heroic picture on the front cover. But this is ALL about Matthew Flinders ...nothing about the gravelly voice of a historian or the "crispy, almost snappable American bacon" plus it has a set of colour plates.
One thing that I would have liked to see more of was the fortifications that Kosciuszko designed at West Point. For the curious, here is a link which has more detail and includes a map which would have enhanced Anthony's book greatly. https://allthingsliberty.com/2022/01/...
I must say, that one thing shines through the whole book and that is Anthony's admiration of the main character: Kosciuszko. And he has more or less convinced me that the guy was a paragon of virtue and an all round "good-guy". Here's what Anthony says of him: "When Kosciuszko said he wouldn't abuse his powers, he meant it. When he spoke of equality, he lived it. Indeed, Kosciuszko spent large parts of the uprising fighting alongside peasants, most of whom were equipped with nothing more than agricultural scythes. He even took to wearing a wool peasant robe in battle rather than his military regalia. Kosciuszko's legend was forged on inclusivity long before it became a buzzword, and on solidarity long before trade unionist and later Polish President Lech Walesa." the are many great lines there. Here are a few that caught my eye:....With Anthony in a souvenir shop: "One particular coffee mug catches the eye. It has a picture of Frederick Douglass, a prominent abolitionist who escaped the bonds of slavery and penned three books about his enslaved life, and it bears the phrase: It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men".
And this: "There are worse ways to spend a fine late April Tuesday morning than walking the grounds of Monticello [Thomas Jefferson's home]........As a somewhat overwhelmed international visitor trying to make sense of where American history and mythology overlap, you're left with emotions, impressions, factoids and fragments that lodge in the mind like pebbles in your shoe. I must confess that I also come away from museums feeling similarly.
Clearly, Anthony and I share concerns about what a second Trump presidency is going to do the the USA though he makes this interesting observation. When you look at people from small towns performing small acts which are big in spirit, you feel like America might not be in such bad shape after all.
He muses about the proposed re-naming of Mount Kosciuszko in Australia to the Aboriginal word for it (though many tribes have different names). And he talks to a Sydney-based Polish Australian couple who organised the Djinama Yilaga choir tour to Poland., They see parallels between the plight of Australia's Aboriginal people and the predicament of the Poles at the hands of Russia and other powers down the years: two peoples half a world apart, both robbed of their sovereignty, their agency, their dignity............. We get what happened to you, they're saying. It happened to us too. But does that make a hero of this world the right name for a sacred mountain in their world?
And he finds that "It is baffling beyond words that the author of a book on the mountain [a respected figure] could have such a flagrant disregard for anything that happened before Strzelecki......Then there was this doozy:......'Our highest mountain is tied to two important figures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and it is tied to Freedom'. It is not tied to any Aboriginal connection"....Again, [says Anthony] how could anyone, let alone a scholar of the mountain, possibly discount Australias Aboriginal heritage by arguing that the mountain 'is not tied to any Aboriginal connection'?
And it's probably about time, that I also came clean on my knowledge of Kosciuszko prior to reading this book. I knew the mountain was named by a Polish explorer who was first (among Europeans anyway) to climb it..and I vaguely knew that it wasn't Kosciuszko himself. But that was about the limit of my knowledge. And I'm now much better informed.....even about Strzelecki...who actually named it.
So what's my overall take on the book. Well it's not exactly what the cover proclaims...a book about Kosciuszko. (I should have read the back page more carefully!). Yes we do learn about him but interspersed with a lot of other issues and trivia (such as what's on the menu at an American Diner or a Polish cafe). And some of this trivia is plain annoying. Does it make the reading easier? Not sure. But overall, I found the book interesting and I learned a lot of new things. I give it 4.5 stars.

[Sarah K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really enjoyable and fun book. I didn't think I'd be using a word like 'fun' when I picked it up but that's exactly what it was. I have always been a lover of the Aussie snow country and had often wondered why our highest mountain was called Mt Kosciuszko. Now I know. And because of how the book was written as a sort of extended travel piece where the author takes us along for the ride, I found it easy to digest all that Polish and American history, as well as the Aboriginal history of Australia's high country. Kosciuszko was such a great guy!

[Vova Mihura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great person! A bit of strange storytelling. The centrepiece of the book is not Tadeusz but a mountain named after him in Australia. There are so many details about pierogi, the author's daughter's university, and other unnecessary stuff.

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. A fantastic blend of Australian, Polish and American history with just the right amount of diversions and rabbit holes to keep it interesting for the reader.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

enjoyable light , history.

[Steve's Book Stuff · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Australia the tallest mountain peak is called Mount Kosciuszko. The mountain rises some 7300 feet above sea level, into the skies above the Kosciuszko National Park. It’s part of the Snowy Mountains in the state of New South Wales; in an area Australians know as the High Country.

The mountain received its name in 1840 after Polish explorer Pawel Strzelecki ascended (there is some debate about whether he actually climbed this specific peak or one nearby) and named it after his friend the Polish freedom fighter Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who had died some twenty years beforehand.

His friend also happened to be a hero of America’s Revolutionary War and designer of West Point, the new nation’s first military academy. Kosciuszko’s fame may have dimmed in Poland and the USA with the passage of time, but thanks to his friend Strzelecki it’s well known to Australians. Never mind that they know the name mostly as that of the highest point in their nation, and less so for the man with the cross-continental military prowess for which he was celebrated by previous generations.

Journalist and author Anthony Sharwood is the writer of two books on the High Country and out of the experience of writing those books came his curiosity about the man for whom the mountain was named. This book, Kosciuszko, is the result of that curiosity.

Sharwood sets out to follow the story of Tadeusz Kosciuszko first in the United States, then in Poland, and finally into Australia, a land the military leader never travelled to. While the book does hit the highlights of Kosciuszko’s life story, it’s really more travelogue than biography. But Sharwood binds the travel and the biography together under the overarching theme of Kosciuszko’s integrity and commitment to equality, and how he might feel about events of our day in places that honor him or bear his name.

It seems that Kosciuszko held an unwavering commitment to the equality of all people throughout his life. In his native Poland he argued for full citizenship for peasants and Jews, then two groups of people with few civil rights. His integrity was celebrated in the US and Poland long after his death.

Then there is the story of his American will. Kosciuszko empathized with the enslaved Blacks in America and urged his friend Thomas Jefferson to free his own slaves. While in America shortly before his death Kosciuszko drafted a will with then Vice President Jefferson’s help that directed that his sizable American holdings (in the form of his accumulated war pension) be used by Jefferson to free his own and other’s slaves. Jefferson wrote that Kosciuszko was “the truest son of liberty I have even known."

Jefferson was meant to administer the will. But after Kosciuszko died he hemmed and hawed, and after several years finally relinquished his role as the estate’s executor. The end result is that Kosciuszko’s money was frittered away on legal and administrative fees while Jefferson never freed his slaves.

So in this book you’ll learn things like how well Kosciuszko is remembered in his own land, what honors have been left behind commemorating him in the US, and how the potential for returning his namesake mountain to an Aboriginal name has prompted a close relationship between Australian Poles and the Aboriginal people of the High Country (what that name might be is not a settled question among the groups of Aboriginal peoples with a history in the area).

I enjoyed Sharwood’s book and learned a lot about a Revolutionary War figure about whom I previously had known very little. I’d definitely recommend it for those interested in Revolutionary War figures. I bought the book over the holidays while in Australia where we are spending the northern hemisphere winter. While writing this review I learned that the paperback will be available in the United States in June while the ebook seems to be available now.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d never given much thought to Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the man for whom Australia’s highest mountain is named and who never set foot in the country. Thanks to Anthony Sharwood’s always informative and often entertaining biography, I know considerably more about the Polish freedom fighter than I ever learned during my Australian school days.

This is no conventional biography. It’s as much a travelogue as it is an account of Kosciuszko’s life. And the man had quite a life — he designed fortifications during the American Revolution, counted Thomas Jefferson as a friend, and was imprisoned by Catherine the Great after leading an uprising against the Russian occupation of Poland.

Sharwood takes the reader to the United States, Poland, Switzerland (where Kosciuszko spent his final years), and to Australia in pursuit of the man and his impact on these nations. How did his name come to be bestowed on a mountain in Australia when he’d never visited there? The answer is in this volume.

Sharwood is clearly a fan, describing Kosciuszko as humble and noble. He emerges from these pages as a fierce opponent of tyranny who abhorred slavery and believed in human equality.

This is a highly readable book and the blending of travelogue and history works beautifully in Sharwood’s deft hands. If you think non-fiction is boring, I recommend you read this — it will change your mind.

[Mountain Lover · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never posted a book review online and tbh I'm not a huge reader. But I do love the Aussie high country and I bought this book out of the same curiosity as the author: just who was this fella whose name every Australian knows but we don't know the first thing about? What a guy! And what a piece of storytelling! The people here going "waaaah waaaah waaahh there was too much other stuff in this book apart from straight life story" need to give themselves an uppercut. The author Sherwood went and found out and told the story of his discovery which was all part of the story. He even says in the book that biographies of Kosciusko have been written by people from multiple different countries, so why go and write another one just like them? This is a book about a man, and about what his life meant and maybe even still means, especially in the context of the most iconic and beautiful part of Australia. I totally loved it.

[Julie Chamaa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, Kosciuszko: the incredible life of the man behind the mountain, is a deceiving title. Be warned - this is not a work of history. It is a travelogue of the author visiting places of prominence in the life of Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Along with the author’s views on foods (Polish pierogi ) American politics and culture (the Jerry Springer show gets some analysis), and some interesting areas of history (the hypocrisy of Thomas Jefferson was fascinating) we are also given Sharwood’s passionate and knowledgeable views about the Australian High Country.

Judging by the majority of reader reviews l am clearly in the minority but l found this meandering style somewhat irritating. Sharwood is a journalist and he can certainly write but the conversational tone and rambling, opinionated voice covers so many subjects woven into the narrative, that at times the namesake of the work seems like a mere aside.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm an Aussie who loves the Snowy Mts area. This was a 3-star book most of the way until the Australian section at the end when the focus on Indigenous perspectives lifted it to 4 stars (and Kosciuszko himself is clearly a 5 star person). I really am not a fan of the author inserting all sorts of completely, and I mean completely, irrelevant details to pad out the word count. The travelogue style of visiting important places in Kosciuszko's life story could still have worked without those details.

The casual, folksy style made it a quick and easy read. I will track down the author's other books on the area.

Given the place-based approach, I did appreciate the very straight forward timeline at the beginning of the book, otherwise I would have really struggled to make sense of it all. If an Aussie mountain had to be named after a worthy foreign figure, this was a good choice, but obviously one day it will have an Aboriginal name.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard Sharwood speak at an event about this book, and while I felt like I understood it beforehand, I got it even more so afterwards and am now reading it again and loving it twice as much. No, this is not a straight biography and that's the point. As Sharwood said, those have been written by Poles and Polish-Americans and French and Germans and others. This book takes Kosciuzko's life and legacy and makes it both relevant and poignant by rubbing it up against the modern world - sometimes through modern political events and sometimes through a pop culture lens. The result is a multi-layered journey through history and ideas that does not have a single boring paragraph. More non-fiction books should attempt this sort of thing. It makes the reading experience enjoyable and informative on so many levels. When is the documentary coming out???

[Piotr Woźniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are a group of Australians of Polish heritage and this was our monthly book club for December 2024. Not everyone in the group liked the book but I loved it. If you want a straight biography of Kościuszko then you can read in English the work of Storozynski or several others. The author of this book is Australian and because he started with no knowledge of Kościuszko, he took readers on the journey of discovery with him and also applied the lessons of Kościuszko's life to some modern situations along the way. I though it was a very interesting idea and brought the great man to life to a new audience in a country where everyone knows his name but nobody knows about his life. Now I am reading again and enjoying twice as much!

[Marisa Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not usually a reader of biographies, and particularly not ones of old white dudes who lived centuries ago but like Hamilton, I was surprised by how relevant and genuinely funny this book was. I loved how it weaved the contemporary and historical context in a really engaging and accessible way via a travel blog. I never felt overwhelmed by facts but ended up learning a lot and pondering some big ideas around slavery, communism, and colonisation. I was amazed how many times Kos popped up in different contexts and continents - kind of like a where’s Wally throughout history. Will definitely be reading the other books in this series.

[Steve747 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining, educational, enlightening, and engaging. The book was an easy read whilst at the same time delivering a substantial amount of information about Kosciuszko.

I knew nothing of Tadeusz Kosciuszko prior to reading this book. I have skied and hiked in Kosciuszko National Park multiple times and climbed Mount Kosciuszko yet somehow never knew who Kosciuszko was.

I enjoyed Sharwood's conversational writing style with a few laughs here and there. The book provided a terrific insight into what Kosciuszko achieved in Europe and America and also how his name ended up on the tallest mountain in Australia.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from the library with a ‘history and travel’ info sticker on the front and thought pfft history full stop. Library got it right and the title of this book would more appropriately be something like Kosciuszko and my tax write off travel to the USA, Poland and the Snowy Mountains. Some interesting points - (most interesting to me was the comparison with B Franklin and a possible Aboriginal man from snowy river) but the writing was at times basic and tedious (hearing about what you ate in each travel stop). A little meandering and could have done with some tightening up.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a brilliant read! Not exactly what I expected but I was not disappointed in the breadth of history that was covered by the author. I don’t exactly know what I was expecting but it certainly astounded me that Kosciuszko was an outstanding individual who deserves more recognition for his exploits than I feel he is given. It was indeed a stunning and enjoyable story that I was sad to see end!

[Peter O. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A blend of history, modern culture and cultural issues, politics and geography that span places where this Polish hero general lived or impacted. Poland, USA and Australia (with sprinkle of Russia and Switzerland). Of all things in this book about Polish general I learned most new things about British colonial policy in Australia towards Aboriginal People. It is a mix of travel book with history book and environmental policies white paper. You will for sure learn several new things.

[Martin Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different to what I was expecting, as much modern travelogue with current geopolitical and cultural insights as revolutionary historical overview of a man and his times. It would be sad to lose all reference to such a man in Australia though his links are perhaps more “spiritual” and perhaps aspirational rather than tangible or personal with the local culture and landscape.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a girl from the Snowy Mountains of NSW and I loved this book. Learned plenty about Kosciuszko himself and then learned heaps about the country I've lived in my whole life. I'm not sure if I want the mountain's name to change but I appreciated the way the author put forward both sides of the story without leaning too hard one way or the other.

[Krystyna Lewandowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Australian author for writing the story of our national hero in a way that all can understand and enjoy. The section on the Aboriginal people around Mt Kosciuszko was very interesting. I did not know about this.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting biography of a very interesting character. Being an Australian, I've always known about Australia's highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko, but never knew anything about the man. Now I know.

I enjoyed the author's quirky sense of humour.

[Dave Lavers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a worthwhile read. Self described as a travelography, this is fairly apt. A biography. A travel story. A history lesson. A local refresher. A social commentary. An interesting and thought provoking read.

I am looking forward to reading more from Anthony Sharwood.

[John Kidman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fabulous. Such a fascinating read and I loved the way the author integrated world events into the story. It was so much more than just a biography and I have read it twice and thoroughly enjoyed reading it both times. It was another of my best reads for 2025.

[★ kitty · Rating 1 out of 5]

babys first dnf ! im here to learn about kosciusko not about your cousin voting for trump brah

[terry kelleher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book was excellent, as it was a genuine biography .As stated in other reviews the remainder was more a travelogue .Somewhat disappointing.