In Tasmania

by Nicholas Shakespeare

In this fascinating history of two turbulent centuries in an apparently idyllic place, Shakespeare effortlessly weaves the history of this unique island with a kaleidoscope of stories featuring a cast of unlikely characters from Errol Flynn to the King of Iceland, a village full of Chatwins and, inevitably, a family of Shakespeares. But what makes this more than a personal quest is Shakespeare's discovery that, despite the nineteen century purges, the Tasmanian Aborigines were not, as previously believed, entirely wiped out.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History, Australia, Tasmania, Memoir, Historical

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Nicholas William Richmond Shakespeare is a English novelist and biographer.

Born to a diplomat, Nicholas Shakespeare grew up in the Far East and in South America. He was educated at the Dragon School preparatory school in Oxford, then at Winchester College and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He worked as a journalist for BBC television and then on The Times as assistant arts and literary editor. From 1988 to 1991 he was literary editor of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph.

Since 2000, Shakespeare has been Patron of the Anita Goulden Trust, helping children in the Peruvian city of Piura. The UK-based charity was set up following an article that Shakespeare wrote for the Daily Telegraph magazine, which raised more than £350,000.

He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is married with two small boys and currently lives in Oxford.

Reviews

[Warwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tasmania, as Nicholas Shakespeare says, is ‘a byword for remoteness’ and seen by most people as ‘like outer space on earth’. For him, the connection was a little closer to home than that, as he turned out to be distantly related to Anthony Fenn Kemp, an influential early settler sometimes called the Father of Tasmania. So this is part travelogue, part investigation into Tasmania and part investigation into Nicholas Shakespeare's own forebears.

What this means in practice is that brief historical sketches are interspersed with little scenes of Shakespeare hailing locals, driving around to points of historical interest, meeting long-lost cousins and poking around in archives.

The results feel a little skittish. The historical stuff is actually fairly light, so this ends up reading more like a family history than anything else – a better-written version of the kind of thing you might find self-published in the gift shop of a provincial museum.

Which is OK as far as it goes, because Shakespeare is a thoughtful, humane and well-read companion – though he does make a few oddly conservative comments, both about transportation (‘transportation was successful in providing a better life to thousands of men and women who were sentenced to it’) and about the extermination of the Aboriginal Tasmanians (‘annihilation was emphatically not government policy’). These aren't really representative of his general tone, though.

A few digressions towards the end (on such subjects as the thylacine), which have no connection to his family history, seem weirdly out of place, and the overall feeling is of a book whose disparate elements never quite come together. Nevertheless, the book is full of strange and fascinating sidelights about this place which, for most of its history, has seemed to exist ‘outside the jurisdiction of normal religious and civic laws’.

[Frumenty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took this up, after some urging, while revisiting Tasmania last month. Shakespeare has family connections in Tasmania of which he was only vaguely aware when he chose to settle there. He had inherited from his grandmother a bundle of letters, unread since they were originally put aside, from one Anthony Fenn Kemp, known to some as "the father of Tasmania", the officer of the New South Wales Corps who, in 1804, led the expedition to claim Van Diemens Land for the British Crown. Shakespeare is a dogged researcher, and Kemp's story is fascinating. The heir to a liquor and tobacco importing business, but too wild to settle down to running it himself, Kemp purchased a commission in the New South Wales Corps, apparently to get as far as possible from his father. With his knowledge and connections in the liquor and tobacco trade, he was ideally placed to prosper in the "Rum Corps", as the New South Wales Corps was to become known. He lived a long time, from the early days of the colony of New South Wales when he was in his 20s to prosperity and influence in Van Diemens Land / Tasmania, where he died in his 80s. And he was a rogue, but with very little about him that could be called "lovable". Kemp's chapters are followed by a section that deals with the subject of the Tasmanian aborigines. There is a continuing connection to Kemp, inasmuch as he was a staunch supporter of the 1830 attempt, called "the Black Line", to round up all the aborigines remaining in Van Diemens Land.

Just as Shakespeare has exhausted the subject of Kemp, he is informed that there is another family connection: an uncle of his father, a Devon farmer who emigrated in 1900 after squandering the family fortune. He tracks down two elderly unmarried daughters of this impoverished relative, and the book has a new lease on life. It manages to touch upon topics as diverse as Merle Oberon and the extinction of the thylacine - there is very little about Tasmania that Shakespeare doesn't weave into his narrative. There is almost a whiff of desperation about it. I was losing interest in the book once the subject of Kemp had run its course. I would occasionally lose track of Shakespeare's connections to his subjects, and wonder to what end I was following him down this or that rabbit-hole into the past.

Shakespeare is the biographer of Bruce Chatwin, and I think there is something of Chatwin about this book, or as I remember Chatwin who was never a favourite with me. The book rambles, and it's often as much about the quest itself as what the quest turns up. There ought to be a name for this type of writing, perhaps "research adventures". Such books are common enough, and some are very good. Some that I could name would be: Bad faith, by Carmen Callil; The Riddle and the knight, by Giles Milton; and, The hare with amber eyes, by Edmund de Waal. The first and second I have reviewed for Goodreads.

In Tasmania has its moments. Shakespeare is a gifted researcher, but the narrative jumps about so I was frequently disoriented. I think I'd have liked it more if it had been less about Nicholas Shakespeare and his many informants, and just focussed on the historical narrative(s). Perhaps that is personal taste.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘There is the Tasmanian light, and then, all over the island, there are pockets of extraordinary darkness.’

I’ve read this book twice, travelled over some familiar territory with Nicholas Shakespeare and wondered about some of what he discovered. Nicholas Shakespeare fell in love with Tasmania’s east coast (as so many do) and then discovered he had ancestors amongst Tasmania’s early European settlers. His focus was mainly on Anthony Fenn Kemp who, while he may be comparatively well known, was not a likeable person at all. But that’s history. Reading this book prompted me to visit Kempton on one of my recent visits ‘home’ to Tasmania and later to revisit Anthony Fenn Kemp’s history as one of those involved in the 1808 Rum Rebellion.

‘We want the dead to reveal to us what they did not reveal in life, some confessional strain they had kept hidden from the world.’

This book is part travelogue with a mixture of genealogy and history. Mr Shakespeare discovered two elderly distant relatives on Tasmania’s north-west coast, whom he visited. Maud and Ivy had lived their lives in this farmhouse and had never travelled further afield than to Launceston (in 1947). There are some lovely anecdotes. He has an encounter with an old fisherman who wonders whether he’s related to the Shakespeare family who make fishing tackle.

Mr Shakespeare touches on some of the contradictions in Tasmania: how once everyone avoided any mention of convict ancestry while now many hope to find a convict ancestor as if that will authenticate their identity. He also touches on more difficult issues: the treatment of Aborigines and contemporary views of Aboriginality.

Tasmania is full of contradictions: a place of great natural beauty, some of which has been destroyed in pursuit of economic gain. It’s a place that many of us have left (in my case over 45 years ago) in pursuit of employment opportunities, but it’s the place I still call home.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shakespeare lives the genealogist’s dream. Weary of the excitements of city life, he relocates his family from London to Tasmania and idly asks himself if there are any other Shakespeares on this remote isle a long, long way from Warwickshire. He checks the phone book and Lo! a hitherto unknown distant cousin beckons and Behold! a book is born. The more Shakespeare digs into his ancestry the more publishable his book becomes. Turns out he is related to one of the most notorious characters in Tasmanian history and he happens to have in his possession a treasure trove of family letters and business accounts that shed a colorful array of lights on the pre-Tasmanian life of this character. Other family connections lead him to discover distant Aboriginal relatives. Now he is able to craft a narrative in which social and political history entwines with family biography, which also happens to be a pleasure to read.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Nicholas Shakespeare's very informative book. Having recently traveled to Tasmania and absolutely loved it I was more than happy to immerse myself in the history of this captivating island and of Nicholas's personal connection and discovery of his ancestors, some of who played a major role in the shaping of Van Diemen's Land. Although there were some quite disturbing and dark moments in the island's past and a lot of bloodshed and harshness for it's early inhabitants, it is difficult to look upon this beautiful land with anything but awe and amazement.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up on this book at the halfway point.

The structure of the book is really scattered. The author tries to weave his personal situations (e.g. the birth of his son) into the already complicated story of the island of Tasmania, but he makes abrupt shifts and leaves out context which make the whole book feel like a jumble.

Among the fluff and nonsense are some nice anecdotes about the island that stick in the memory. These give a narrow but interesting view of Tasmania.

[Kieran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually bought this when I was in Tasmania but I was a tiny bit disappointed. It wasn’t a history book really and it had no defined chronology. Just a series of anecdotes about Tasmania in a slap dash order. That being said it is very informative and about a land that I simply fell in love with. The chapter on Tasmanian tigers was very interesting.

[Donna Jo Atwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A combination history, biography, and travel book, In Tasmania offers many of the joys of Bill Bryson while bringing insights about a little known part of the world.
As Shakespeare settled his family into their new home in Tasmania he researched an ancestor who had his fingers in many of the pies at the founding of the colony. This is a fascinating look at a beautiful island (too bad there aren't colored pictures) and a glimpse of a long dead rascal.
Also included are stories of the many convicts, the cannibalism (shades of Alfred Packer), the King of Iceland, and others you'll need to read about yourself.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In Tasmania” by Nicholas Shakespeare is an enjoyable blend of remembrances, anecdotes, and history. The stories are split into four sections, each one tackling a different aspect of the history of Tasmania, and each with wonderful supporting personal stories which take us along on the journey of Nicholas Shakespeare discovering the history of his family as well as the history of Tasmania and the significant overlap between the two. The book could easily fit into the category of History or Memoir, and the writing in places is almost like that of a novel.

The first section is titled “Father of Tasmania” and focuses largely on Anthony Fenn Kemp, an unusual character who travelled to France during the revolution and then went to South Carolina and met George Washington before making his way to New South Wales. There he got involved in most everything, and not in a good way. Shakespeare alternates between detailing the colorful adventures of Anthony Kemp and his own discovery that he was related to this important, but not particularly well-remembered or well-liked figure. It would be impossible to cover Kemp’s life in a review, and not surprisingly this is the largest section of the book.

The second section is called “Black Lines”, and it deals with the aboriginal population and the interactions between the Europeans and the natives. This is a very poignant section, detailing the history right down to the death of the last full-blooded male (William Lanne) and female (Lalla Rookh, a.k.a. Truganina) Tasmanian aboriginals. Shakespeare discusses the scenes of both of their passings so well, that it cannot fail to touch the reader’s heart. The horrors of the fight over Lanne’s body, and the sorry of Truganini’s last years after Lanne had passed leave an impact that one will remember long after completing the book.

The third section is called “Elysium”, and in this section the author looks at how Tasmania went from being perceived as “hell on Earth” to a much more positive reputation. There is no single thread in this section, but his family history focuses on a favorite uncle of his father’s whom Nicholas Shakespeare learns came to Tasmania and the relatives that he meets while learning about him. This is a more personal section than the previous ones, and more general in its approach to covering the history of Tasmania. Though called “Elysium”, there is still a bit of “hell” included, especially in the detailed section on an 80-year old murder which took place near where his relatives lived.

The last section is titled “Oyster Bay”, and this section itself is divided into four short chapters, each detailing one particular aspect of Tasmania. The first is “Daughter of Tasmania” and is about the actress Merle Oberon who claimed to be from Tasmania, but her history is not quite so clear. The second chapter is titled “Tigers and Devils” and discusses the history of the unique animals of Tasmania, and in particular the mysterious Tasmanian Tiger who some say still survives. The third chapter discusses Oyster Bay and the unusual events which have occurred at that location. The last chapter which closes the section and the book is titled “Doubles” in which Shakespeare discovers that the subject of his previous book also has numerous relatives in Tasmania. He goes on to bring together the two sets of relatives that he has there as well.

Those who have been there know that Tasmania is an unusual place, with its own feel and pace. “In Tasmania” does a beautiful job of capturing the feel of the place, from the scary and horrible past, to the beautiful natural environment, to the quaint English country town feel in some areas. For those who have been there, you will enjoy your own remembrances as you read this book, and for those who haven’t, this book is the next best thing to visiting.

[Strivetoengage · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 2007 a friend gave me the book In Tasmania by Nicholas Shakespeare. I lived in Tasmania for 16 months (1987 and part of 1988). I had grown up until then living a semi-subsistence lifestyle in the bush, among modest people with limited scopes of life. In Launceston I discovered people with a much broader range of interests and experiences. As a 10 year old I loved Launceston for it’s history, the monkeys in Central Park, the museum of Natural History, freshly baked croissants on Sundays, and the gorgeous national parks.

Tasmania is famous for its violent past, harsh prisons for unwanted poor people of England (convicts), right wing politics that see majestic forests cleared, and the determined genocide of the indigenous people. Author Shakespeare decided to travel to Tasmania after hearing about its exceptional beauty. After arriving he discovered a set of letters written by his opportunistic and corrupt ancestor Anthony Fenn Kemp (‘father of Tasmania’). Despite the nasty things that Kemp did I found the section of the book about Kemp to be interesting but not particularly captivating.

When I would visit the museum of Natural History in Launceston as a child I always paused in front of the bust of Truganini and felt shame and sadness that she represented the last ‘full-blood’ indigenous person of Tasmania. For all Australians our forefathers’ merciless treatment of indigenous Australians is a hair-shirt that we all must wear. It was with considerable surprise to me then that Shakespeare discovered that the Tasmanian Aborigines did not die out. The entire section on the Tasmanian Aborigines was interesting but still I struggled to finish it.

Unfortunately Shakespeare then lost me by diving into minute details of his mother’s ancestor (Hordern). I tried to care but I found the writing dull and the topic boring. It’s for this reason that I took an inordinately long time to read this book. I didn’t love this book. On the whole I found the writing boring but there were passages that resonated with me, like this one:

"The pieties of a place increase astronomically the further you are from home…The intensity of religious feeling was characterised by one lady who crossed out in her bible anything she found objectionable, deleting the entire ‘Song of Solomon’ and any reference to biological functions."

I found this quote apt because it captures my feelings about ignorance, by Julian Sorell Huxley:
"It is just where knowledge is least sure that feeling always runs highest!"

I first posted this review on my blog: https://strivetoengage.wordpress.com/...

[T P · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mostly ‘very good’, brief history of Tasmania, told through a truly diverse collection of vignettes, past and present.

Shakespeare spends the book attempting to unearth truths about his own family past. Through the personal, he speaks to the universal history of this beautiful island, which many of us call home.

I loved so much of what I learned — indeed loved it enough that about half way through I returned the library loan and bought the book.

That said, there are some parts that drag, about two thirds through. And, I should warn, there two or three fairly prurient stories about a third in.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've known there is a Tasmania ever since I was a kid and watched the Tasmanian Devil whirl into the Bugs Bunny cartoons and eat everything in sight. But I never really knew about it as a land until reading this book.

Shakespeare gets the book rolling when a friend calls him and tells him he has a double there. He finds an N. Shakespeare in the phone directory and gives him a call. Turns out he IS a distant cousin and they talk about how they were teased and called "Bill" in grade school.

His mother in England (where he was born) tells him that now that he is living in Tasmania, he can probably find quite a few relatives because part of his family emigrated there. So he begins the hunt.

Eventually, Shakespeare discovers that the man called the "Father of Tasmania" - Anthony Fenn Kemp - was the brother-in-law of his something-great grandfather. So he traces Kemp's life through his extravagant lifestyle in England to his desparate poverty in Tasmania. Along the way, he also tells us about other relatives, both living and dead, and colorful characters from the beginnings of the country. I completey lost track of all of the relatives and their relationships, but that doesn't spoil the book.

In the last section of the book, Shakespeare deals with some of the interesting stories/facts about the island. Was Merle Oberon Tasmanian? (He does a lot of research on this one.) Are there still Tasmanian tigers or have they gone extinct? (I knew about the tigers, a dog-like animal with a long snout, stripes on its hind end, and a long straight tail that doesn't curl. What I didn't know was that that tail is actually physically like a kangaroo's tail and the tiger can/could? stand on its hind legs and use the tail for balance.) And finally, is the fierce reputation and garbage-can appetite of the Tasmanian devil true? (Yes and yes - they eat everything. But they are nocturnal and are rarely seen even if their scream is the most blood-curdling sound you've ever heard.)

It's worth a read even if you can't follow the lineage. The characters who "settled" Van Diemen's Land" are even more eccentric than those who settled Australia.

And P. S. Errol Flynn WAS Tasmanian.

[Steve's Book Stuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicholas Shakespeare, British novelist and biographer, and his wife travel to Tasmania to take a break from it all, fall in love with the place and decide to move there. This book is the result of that decision. It's part history, part genealogy, part ramble as Shakespeare conveys to us his discovery of Tasmania and his familial connections to the place.

The story is in four parts - the first is about Shakespeare's research regarding his long lost relation Anthony Fenn Kemp, who was the self-described "father of Tasmania", (described elsewhere in the book as a "great ass".) When Shakespeare tells the librarian at the Hobart archives that he is related to Kemp she advises him "I would not go around divulging that information." Through Kemp's story we learn about the early European settlement of Tasmania.

Part II tells of Tasmania's Aborigines and how they were thought to have died out, but have been recently "rediscovered". Part III tells of another of Shakespeare's long lost relations and provides insight into the hardships of a generation later than Kemps - those who migrated to Tasmania in the early twentieth century. Finally, Part IV brings us back to today (with a brief diversion to tell the story of actress Merle Oberon, a "true daughter of Tasmania") and completes the story of how Shakespeare and family came to Tasmania.

The book does ramble, but as one who loves history and who has dived down rabbit holes doing my own genealogical research, I was more than happy to ramble with him. As an author Shakespeare has a light touch, and though the book is almost 400 pages long it seemed to go quickly each time I picked it up. As each of the four parts stand mostly on their own, I did put the book down in between parts but on picking it back up I found myself staying up late to finish each part.

I picked this book up in Hobart in 2018 when visiting Tasmania, and it's sat in my rather large pile of "to be read" books until now. I am happy to finally be making time to tackle that pile and bring it back down to a manageable size. :)

[Oceana2602 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book because I gave up on Shakespeare's biography of Bruce Chatwin, and not because it wasn't good, but because it was a bit too good (see my review of "Bruce Chatwin" by Shakespeare, if you are interested).

Not having informed myself about the exact content (other than it obviously being about Tasmania), I expected a travel description in the style of Theroux and others and was sorely disappointed when I had read my way through the first fifty or so pages of Tasmanian history. I now know all about Mr. Kemp, thank you.

I should have trusted Shakespeare, though. The history part may have been a bit dry, but mostly because it was unexpected. But it was also necessary in order to understand the relations of what is told in the rest of the book; and here Shakespeare shows his true brilliance: a mixture of personal family history, traveling, account sof meetings with Tasmanian people as well as social and ecological issues. The writing it alive, in a way where you sometimes feel as if he had been there and told you the stories himself.

Other than Theroux (again, this book is very different from Theroux's travel books), Shakespeare doesn't judge too obvisouly. Sometimes he even stays a bit too passive for my taste, but I don't want to judge his opinions or non-opinions, because I don't know enough about Tasmania's issue to have an informed opinion myself. One thing I have learnt from the book in that regard: I want to know more about Tasmania. I after having read and enjoyed Shakespeare's book, I think I know what to look for.

(I listed this under travel-literature despite what I said aboved, because it would be a good introduction to the island if one were to travel there.)

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tasmania is an extraordinary place and this is an extraordinary, though very personal book. Perhaps the title should be "My Tasmania" as the author traces his connections to the island revealing its history and geography in the process, albeit selectively in terms of his own forebears, so do not expect a complete portrait of the island and its history. However Shakespeare brings to life some extraordinary characters, not all of them from the past! I particularly liked Ivy and Maud.

I found his examination of the existence or extinction of the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) very thought-provoking. He reflects well on the bio-diversity of the island, its relative purity, and what man is doing to destroy that.

Nicholas Shakespeare writes well although he does perhaps go into too much detail at times. His evocation of place is exceptional but the book is not well served by the poor illustrations, sometimes so dark as to be meaningless. I would have preferred a larger typeface - this is a much longer book than the number of pages would suggest!

I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in the remote places of this world, and if you haven't already been there, this book should inspire you to do so.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extremely readable history of some of the earliest European settlements in Australia told via the life stories of various characters from the past and present. From the 'father of Tasmania' (and, it seems, complete crook) Anthony Fenn Kemp to the supposedly "Tasmanian-born British actress" Merle Oberon, the stories are linked and interspersed with author Nicholas Shakespeare's own story in Tasmania. He tries to satisfy himself with answers to questions such as "was Truganini really the last Tasmanian Aborigine" and "how likely is it that the elusive Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine still exists"? This book if full of myths, legends and true stories about this amazing part of the country. I especially loved Ivy and Maud, the two elderly sisters who had only left their farm 7 times in their lifetime, and the furthest they had been was 70km on the train to Launceston! A wonderful read.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at a small bookstore in Launceston, Tasmania while looking for a book on the area and really enjoyed it. It's a great history of Tasmania as well as Australia. What happens in Tassie mirrors the larger picture that happened in the rest of the country but this is told on a personal level. It's also amazing how many people that are so well known throughout the world have some sort of connection to the island. Shakespeare's writing and word choice was great, I only wish that the story was more linear in some parts. I guarantee that while reading this book you will, on at least one occasion, have thoughts about moving to Tasmania.

[Nicola · Rating 2 out of 5]

I so wanted to give this book more stars as I loved the history and the genealogy aspects of the book. However, I found it a bit of a hard read as Nicholas's personal story was intertwined with the recounted history and his genealogical journey. I found it confusing switching between the historical characters and then suddenly he's talking about his own family in the present day, without any lead in. The book could have been severely enhanced with a family tree attached, the number of family members became confusing as you jumped between centuries and stories. I also had to get an atlas as the map of Tasmania in the books was definitely note detailed enough as he jumped around.

[Leeanne McHarg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found parts of this book interesting the research was certainly in depth. I found myself quite confused most of the time as the storyline jumped quite a bit.

The history of Shakespeare’s ancestor Kemp was an interesting story but jumped so often I wasn’t quite sure who he was talking about or what it had to do with Kemp. It then moved into Merle Oberon, the Tasmanian Tiger and another ancestor Hordern.

I’m not really sure what the book was actually about - the title was Tasmania but I feel it just covered four topics that were somehow connected to Tasmania but no real connection to each other, than being in the same book!

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many, I was born in Tasmania, but aside from some token touristic visits to Port Arthur I felt a complete disconnect from it's history. I think Shakespeare's book was just what I needed, something heartfelt and whimsical, with a great balance of fact and storytelling to make it palatable. The final chapters feel a little tacked on but I genuinely enjoyed reading about the author's lineage, the broader colonial tapestry it formed, and his somewhat personalised version of Tasmanian colonisation and aboriginal history. Interesting and endearing.

[Dave J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting reading "journey". I picked it up (thank you Sandra) because I am thinking about visiting Tasmania. I didn't know anything about it and wondered if it might be a traveller's tale/source of information about Tasmania as it is today. Initially I was disappointed - it's a history of the island mixed with the author's quest to trace lost (and not so lost) relatives. Not really my sort of book I thought. But I was steadily drawn in by the quality of the writing. In the end I loved it, although I'm no more interested in geneology (his or mine) after it than I was before it.

[Samuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were many parts of this I liked, especially the more historical-journalistic prose. However, the structure was lacking somewhat, hung as it was, on Shakespeare insisting on interpreting everything he encountered through his own family line. There is certainly a memoir element to it, but the book jumps about in a confused manner.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and detailed portrait of Tasmania, a place i knew virtually nothing about before reading this book. It reveals a beautiful and demanding country filled with secrets and hidden stories.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The one book I bought on my road trip around Tasmania and it couldn't have been better for capturing the odd delights of this beautiful little island. Nicholas Shakespeare is an extraordinarily talented researcher and writer, and he uncovered some truly astonishing tales in this wonderful book.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoying this book immensely! Style is entertaining, suspenseful and educative. Recommend this book to those considering a trip to "Tassie", or just wanting to learn more of the early colonial days and the types of folks who inhabited those times.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a non-Tasmanian as he researches Tasmania's history and myths. The history is linked to side branches of his own genealogy. He writes very engagingly and is respectful of the people he gets to know. His geography is off at times. The illustrations are well chosen.

[Linda in Utopia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dieses Buch hat mich wirklich umgehauen. Sehr interessant, voller Geschichte, fast wie ein historischer Roman und dann wieder wie ein Familiendrama. Wirklich wirklich empfehlenswert für alle die sich annähernd für englisch-australische Geschichte interessieren.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating stories about not very important people

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

totally enjoyed this history of Tasmania as linked to the author's family story.

[Lynda Spadaccini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this whilst spending two weeks in .... Tasmania. A great mix of history and geneology. Recommended if you are travelling to tassie or not.