Another tour de force by an Oxford writer - or one who lived in Oxford before his success allowed him to decamp to Italy. It is the voyage of an extraordinary collection of characters - the Rev Geoffrey Wilson, an amateur geologist and religious fundamentalist who believes he will find the Garden of Eden in Tasmania, the sinister Dr Potter, who believes aborigines are an inferior race, the Manx crew of the boat who speak in a dialect which is somehow magically comprehensible by the end of the book. And then there is the aborigine Cromwell, a magnificently moving character who is the true hero of the book. As a special treat, after you have read this masterpiece, listen to the tape, spendidly read by Simon Callow.
(Audiotape HarperCollins, £12.99)
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