In Tasmania - Nicholas Shakespeare

The book starts with Nicholas Shakespeare, having moved to Tasmania from England with his wife not too long ago, learning there's another N. Shakespeare in Tasmania. They live near one of the original European settlements, York Town, when leads Nicholas into talking about Anthony Fenn Kemp, sometimes called the Father of Tasmania (white Tasmania, obviously), who he had recently learned he was related to on his father's side. And it turned out he had relatives in Tasmania on his mother's side as well. And through those bloodlines, he discusses the history of Tasmania from the recorded arrival of Europeans, diverging onto chapters about other people as they become relevant.

As with any book about another person's lineage, some parts will be more interesting than others. I got hopelessly lost trying to keep track of who was related to who by the time I was halfway through the book. And some of it simply wasn't of interest to me. The two sisters that represent the connection on his mother's side I found dull.

In contrast, he spends the middle of the book discussing the fate of the Aborigines that were present on the island when Europeans showed up. That the last Aborigine was believed to die decades ago, but people have, since the 1970s, started to recognize and acknowledge that many people on the island have an Aboriginal ancestor. Which has led to a lot of debate about who can and can't claim that heritage.

The parts about the natural features of the island, and some of the wildlife were extremely interesting to me. But I have another book sitting next to the couch to delve into those topics. Right near the end, he mentions there was a surge in Chinese immigration to the island in the mid-to-late 1800s, due to the presence of tin, which could be mined. That there are the remnants of old homes and shacks in the woods, some of which are still being found. That was something I might want to read more about. Or Jorgen Jorgenson, who came to Tasmania after a (very) brief stint as King of Iceland.

'In the north-west I had come across the hamlets of Paradise and Nowhere Else - after the comment of an early settler who, whenever he saw people cross his property, would tell them they had proceeded far enough. "The track," said Charles Ivory gruffly, "leads nowhere else." And yet the landscape had fought back. I found myself making a list of those who had presumed to rename it:

Tasman - d. in disgrace; Baudin - d. in Mauritius of dysentery; Flinders - d. on the day his Terra Australis was printed; Schouten - allegedly stoned to death; Hellyer - committed suicide; Lorymer - drowned while surveying the north-west coast with Jorgenson; Jorgenson - d. in ditch.'