The Fatal Shore
Book description
An award-winning epic on the birth of Australia
In 1787, the twenty-eighth year of the reign of King George III, the British Government sent a fleet to colonise Australia.
Documenting the brutal transportation of men, women and children out of Georgian Britain into a horrific penal system which was to…
Why read it?
2 authors picked The Fatal Shore as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I thought I’d finish my list with something a little different. Everyone else in the books I’ve chosen made some kind of personal decision to take their life in a different direction, but the people in this last book didn’t. The Fatal Shore is about the earliest convicts, banished to Australia to start new lives in unfamiliar, hostile territory. The first chapter alone is fascinating, documenting peoples from a ‘civilised’ part of the world struggling for survival while aboriginal ‘savages’ thrived. It’s more than just a story of survival in a new world, but also a fantastic example of where…
From Ken's list on living unusual, adventurous or alternative lives.
I used to say of The Fatal Shore that any Australian who hadn’t read it should have his or her passport confiscated and should not be allowed to vote. When I was taught history in school in Australia, we were endlessly told that the first colonists were on the brink of starvation. In The Fatal Shore, Bob marvels at all this. The blacks looked on incredulous at the starving settlers. Here were people surrounded by plenty: edible meat, edible fish, and edible native plants. Yet they would rather starve and yearn for a regular British diet than sample the…
From Peter's list on the history of Australia.
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