Wabonga Press
  • WELCOME
  • OUR SERVICES
  • OUR PROJECTS
  • OUR CONTENT
  • CONTACT US

Napoleon's Last Island

11/12/2015

 
Picture
Tom Keneally: Random House Australia $32.99
 
TWO hundred years and two months ago, a momentous (and, to that point, unimaginably preposterous) event occurred on a pinprick of rock in the south Atlantic Ocean: dethroned French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte – the Great Ogre, the Tyrant, who had rampaged across Europe and already escaped once from exile – was incarcerated again.
In the hands of the Royal Navy after his rout at Waterloo and forced flight from Paris, Bonaparte, then aged 47, was shipped to arguably the most isolated outpost at that time under British control. The inhabitants of tiny St Helena were simultaneously astounded, appalled and intrigued when on October 17 1815 the prize captive and his entourage were ushered onto their 17-by-10-kilometre sliver of land.
His miserable banishment there would not succeed entirely, however. Bonaparte’s spiteful jailers, intent on seeing him endure a lonely and deprived subsistence, had not foreseen the companionship he would find in an unlikely playmate and ally: 13-year-old Lucia Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Balcombe. Caught midway between childhood and adolescence, Betsy was irreverent, quick-witted and challenging – an alluring combination to a man wearied by being fawned over endlessly and tiptoed around.
Thomas Keneally’s enthralling, educative and at-times-heartwrenching novel – part fiction, largely fact – celebrates both the youthful pranks and the profound tenderness that passed between the pair as Betsy honed her love-hate regard for the liquorice-eating, compassionate, attentive man she teasingly called “Boney” and would go on to remember always as “Our Great Friend”.
An excellent companion book, also released in recent weeks, is Sydney writer Anne Whitehead’s Betsy and the Emperor. When read as a follow-up to Keneally’s novel it verifies that many of the outlandish escapades described therein did indeed occur and expands on the Balcombe family’s later wanderings, including to Australia, where the grand-daughter of one of Betsy’s younger brothers was Dame Mabel Brookes.


Comments are closed.
    ' Books are treasure for the spirit and ​the soul. '​
    — VB 2020

    ​​

    Book reviews

    WABONGA Press produces an original book review every Friday. Books are chosen from among the latest English-language fiction and non-fiction releases in Australia and internationally.
    Each 300-word review is accompanied by a high-resolution cover image.
    All are available for licensing to print media in selected regions.​For less than the cost of one takeaway cup of coffee each week, a publication can make use of this service to access a new review every seven days, backed by a written guarantee that the same content will not be licensed for use by any direct competitor.
    Please contact Wabonga's publisher, Rosalea Ryan, to discuss how this service can be tailored to your newspaper or magazine.​

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Adventure
    Africa
    Antarctica
    Arctic
    Asia
    Atlantic
    Australia
    Author – Australian
    Biography
    British Isles
    Caribbean
    Christmas
    Crime
    Easter
    Entertainment
    Europe
    Fiction
    Finance
    Food
    History
    Humour
    Journalism
    Maritime
    Middle East
    Nature
    New Year
    Non-fiction
    North America
    Pacific
    Pandemic
    Relationships
    Romance
    Scandinavia
    South America
    Sport
    Sub-continent
    Suspense
    Travel
    War

    Archive

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

Picture