BOOK REVIEW | “A Passion for Exploring New Countries”: Matthew Flinders & George Bass

On opening this book your reviewer thought, “Ho hum, yet another dreary rehash of the Bass and Flinders story”. Fortunately, he was wrong, very wrong. It takes a delightful and very thorough new approach.

Having read numerous books on this subject, your reviewer had become jaded. It seemed unlikely that he could learn anything new. The author, in this case, has undertaken some excellent and original research that makes two of Australia’s three most famous explorers really come alive.

She details their achievements but presents their personalities in a new and very refreshing way. She doesn’t shy away from the tragedies that cut short the lives of both these high achievers and offers very plausible explanations of why they so tragically died so young.

This is a most interesting and readable book.

Author: Josephine Bastian

Available from Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, Australia

Web: www.scholarly.info