Amazon.com
Most people know the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, how in 1789 Captain Bligh's crew mutinied then founded their paradise on Pitcairn Island. Two centuries later, the mutineers' descendants still live on Pitcairn with no cars, doctors, crime, or regular contact with the outside world, despite the hordes of paradise-seekers who deluge the island with requests, most of which are refused. After two years' persistence and 4,000 miles aboard a chemical tanker, Dea Birkett finally made her way to Pitcairn, but the island paradise has a dark legacy. Birkett's account is a fascinating look at a tight community with a notorious past and a shady present.
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From Library Journal
Birkett, an English travel author (Spinsters Abroad: Victorian Lady Explorers, Blackwell, 1989) and contributor to numerous magazines, became fascinated with the story of Pitcairn Island after viewing the film The Bounty (1984). Home to the descendants of the legendary mutineers of the HMAV Bounty, Pitcairn is situated 3000 miles from the nearest land in the South Pacific. It took more than two years for Birkett to get permission to visit the island, book passage on a chemical tanker, and arrange to stay with an islander. The 40 inhabitants speak Pitcairnese, a mixture of Polynesian and 18th-century English. Birkett uses Pitcairnese throughout, describing everyday life on the remote island, where everyone drives three-wheel all-terrain vehicles, has electricity only from 6 p.m. to 11 a.m., and uses a "party line" island telephone system. Whenever a ship is sighted, the bell is rung and the entire island population rushes to the jetty to launch long boats so that island produce and souvenirs can be bartered for much-needed supplies. In the end, Birkett fails to "fit" into the tightly knit community she beautifully documents. Over 200 books and five movies have told the tale of the mutiny; this one brings us up-to-date. Recommended for public and academic collections.?John Kenny, San Francisco
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
