In Tasmania: A House at the End of the World [Import] [Hardcover]

Nicholas Shakespeare (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2004

The author first went to Tasmania having heard of the island’s exceptional beauty, and because it was famously remote. He soon decided that it was where he wanted to live. Shakespeare explores the island’s colourful history, inhabitants and ancestors, among whom he discovers some of his own.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nicholas Shakespeare is the author of The Vision of Elena Silves (1989), winner of the Somerset Maugham Award; The High Flyer, for which he was chosen for the Granta list in 1993 and The Dancer Upstairs which was the American Libraries Association's Best Novel of 1997. His biography, Bruce Chatwin (1999), was published to unstinting critical acclaim and sold 26,000 copies in hardback.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harvill Press (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843431572
• ISBN-13: 978-1843431572
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,663,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating look at this island at the end of the world, January 22, 2006

By 

Melissa Kane (St. Albans, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Tasmania: A House at the End of the World (Hardcover)

Part family memoir, part history and part travelogue, In Tasmania is a sweeping portrait of a little-visited part of Australia with a surprisingly rich and, at times, brutal backstory.

Shakespeare moves to Tasmania with his wife for a bit of peace and quiet after writing a lengthy and critically acclaimed biog of Bruce Chatwin, but the writer in him can't stop digging around for interesting stories and soon he's uncovered two different strands of his family that chose to emigrate to the island. One of them, Anthony Fenn Kemp, was a 'founding father' of sorts who had dreams of being an antipodean George Washington - not that he ever came close.

And Shakespeare doesn't stop there - he details the devastating destruction of Tasmania's native inhabitants - both human and animal - and travels to the four corners of the island to tell its story and that of its first European settlers.

I found this book an interesting and enlightening read and even if you've read books before about the founding of Australia you will find plenty here that is new. The rich portraits of inhabitants alive and dead, the tabloid scandals of yesteryear, the birds, the animals and the rich soil of Tasmania all have their fascinating stories told here.