John

This was as much about the author as it was about Bennelong & Phillip, who could not resist inserting her cleverness into the story. Reminded me more of Kath & Kym than anything else: Look at Me, look at me! Unlike all those other historians who just don't get it and are nothing more than colonial lackies, she can write history backwards! It was tiresome. I made it to the end because there actually was some good history buried in there, but KIate Fulgar's never ending preening herself over her cleverness at being the first person ever in the history of the world to get it right bludgeoned it. I don't think so. Some examples: She insists on calling Britain "Breweral", apparently a term used by some people living in the 1700's in a tiny proportion of this continent of ours - certainly not used Australia wide. She then uses another local term for corroboree, one that even I've forgotten now, knowing that if we walked up to almost every person in this country and asked what it meant, you would get a blank stare. Everyone knows what corroboree means. If the purpose of language is to convey meaning such that those reading it understand whats going on, then this book fails so often under the burdensome lecturing sprinkled through out. On top of this, there is just so much conjecturing and speculation, or just plain made up if you like, without the actual evidence to back it up. Tiresome. I hope someone comes along and tidies up the most recent research and puts it in a form without also wanting to become a part of the story.