Author Peter Corris discovered a connection to Fletcher Christian whilst tracing his own family ancestry. What Corris also found was myth and mystery surrounding Christian's death in as much that no grave site has ever been confirmed to this day. Corris has written a fictional journal and weaves a spellbinding tale of life on the high seas and of the mutiny which led to Captain Bligh being put out of his ship. Fletcher is portrayed as a lonely man increasingly isolated on his island refuge and how paradise soon descends into a ‘lord of the flies’ scenario.

The author has researched well and you could well be reading a work of non fiction. Captain Bligh, for example has previously been portrayed as a madman but what we discover is that in fact he was addicted to arsenic, a feel-good drug of it’s time which attributed to his erratic mood swings. Faced with this knowledge of Bligh’s addiction, Fletcher is burdened with this dilemma and the realization that there was no choice but to seize control of his ship taking several of the men as his crew.

This is a great read in the first person narrative style where Christian and you the reader are privy to his thoughts and the sense of inpending dread that starts to become apparent after settlement on Pitcairn Island . I enjoyed this insight into this part of our history and all the more so in light of current events with descendants of Christian recently clouded by scandal surrounding child abuse and that of the brutal murder of Janelle Patton on Norfolk Island in 2002. ( )