Product Description

'A big, ambitious novel with a rich historical sweep and a host of narrative voices. Its subject is a vicar's ludicrous expedition in 1857 to the Garden of Eden in Tasmania, [as] meanwhile, in Tasmania itself, the British settlers are alternately trying to civilise and eliminate the Aboriginal population ... The sort of novel that few contemporary writers have either the imagination or the stamina to sustain' - Daily Telegraph

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5535 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Christopher Columbus was looking for a passage to India when he ran full-tilt into the Americas. One of the narrators of Matthew Kneale's ambitious historical novel English Passengers has more modest aspirations: Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley wants only to smuggle a little tobacco, brandy and French pornography from the Isle of Mann to a secluded beach in England. Yet somehow in the process he and his crew end up weighing anchor for Australia. Worse, they are forced to carry three temperamental Englishmen bound for Tasmania on a mission to discover the exact location of the Garden of Eden. The year is 1857 and the study of geology is beginning to make serious inroads into areas of religious doctrine. When the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson runs across a scientific treatise that puts the age of Silurian Limestone somewhere in the neighbourhood of 100,000 years, he is scandalised: "This was despite the fact that the Bible tells, and with great clarity, that the earth was created a mere six thousand years ago". His many attempts to prove the Bible's accuracy lead, eventually, to a scientific expedition comprised of himself, Timothy Renshaw, a dilettante botanist and Dr Thomas Potter.

Now jump back 30 years, to 1828, when a revolution of sorts is stirring on the island of Tasmania. Over the years white settlers have been encroaching on aboriginal land and relations have deteriorated into violence. At the heart of the action is Peevay, a young half-breed abandoned by his aborigine mother, who had been kidnapped and raped by a white escaped convict. Now his vengeful mother is leading a war against the whites, and Peevay, desperate to win her love, has joined her. Chapters from the past narrated by Peevay and augmented by letters and dispatches from white settlers alternate with the sections told by Kewley, Wilson, Renshaw and Potter. Eventually, of course, the two timelines intersect with momentous results.

War, mutiny, shipwreck and not a little farce make English Passengers a gripping read, but it is Matthew Kneale's literary ventriloquism that renders it remarkable. In a novel with so many different points of view, the individuality of each voice stands out. There is, for instance, the mutinous Dr Potter, whose descent into paranoia and egomania results in diary entries reminiscent of a 19th-century psychotic Bridget Jones: "Manxmen = treacherous even to v. last. Self heard Brew (lashed to mainmast as per usual) instructing helmsman to steer N.N.W. when self questioned he re. this he claiming we = carried into Bay of Biscay by difficult sea currents + must set course to avoid Breton Peninsular. He pointing to distant point of land to N.N.E. claiming this = Brittany. Self = doubtful".

Perhaps the most compelling voice in English Passengers belongs to Peevay, who paints a vivid picture of aboriginal life in a foreign tongue he nonetheless makes his own:

When we sat so in the dark, after our eating, Tartoyen told us stories--secret stories that I will not say even now--about the moon and sun, and how everyone got made, from men and wallaby to seal and kangaroo rat and so. Also he told who was in those rocks and mountains and stars, and how they went there. Until, by and by, I could hear stories as we walked across the world, and divine how it got so, till I knew the world as if he was some family fellow of mine.

By the close of this epic tale, the world Peevay knew has gone forever, and the lives of the Manx sailors and English passengers have been irrevocably changed. Based on real events in Tasmanian history, Matthew Kneale's novel delivers a home truth about Australia's brutal colonial past, even as it conveys the wonder and allure of the age of exploration. --Alix Wilber

Review
"'A big, ambitious novel with a rich historical sweep and a host of narrative voices. Its subject is a vicar's ludicrous expedition in 1857 to the Garden of Eden in Tasmania, [as] meanwhile, in Tasmania itself, the British settlers are alternately trying to civilise and eliminate the Aboriginal population... The sort of novel that few contemporary writers have either the imagination or the stamina to sustain' - Daily Telegraph"

Setting sail in the summer of 1857, the sharp coast of Tasmania is the destination for Captain Kewley's English passengers. To a practical Manxman they seem a strange lot but their passage is the only way to hide his smuggling activities from customs. Among the passengers is the Reverend Wilson, who is confident of proving the bible's literal truth by discovering the Garden of Eden in the Tasmania. Lurking behind his pompous clerical back is the sinister Dr Potter, formulating a disturbing new scientific theory of racial superiority. Their southward journey is a hilarious affair as the wily Manxmen unsuccessfully attempt to sell their illicit cargo at ports-of-call without their feuding passengers noticing. Interwoven within this wonderful comic novel, though, is a more serious intent. Peevay, the last Tasmanian Aborigine, recounts the barbarisms inflicted on his people by the invading British. Massacre, disease and depredations by escaped convicts take their toll on the aborigines but none is as deadly as the Victorians' absurd attempts to convert and improve his people; genocide in a velvet glove. The complex narrative is confidently welded together by this prize-winning author. It is superbly researched but most effective is the convincing construction of a range of different voices. (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Matthew Kneale was born in 1960. He is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, including SWEET THAMES (1992), which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. He lives in Oxford.

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Customer Reviews

A winner after some initial uncertainty
I couldn't get on with this book initially due to the, as I saw it, aggravating narrative style of the first 'writer'. However, I persisted and am very glad I did. I found the social history content fascinating and the book well written with some gentle comic moments. Definitely to be recommended.

My favourite book
I adored this book. I loved the characters, I loved the language, and I loved the way that it all came together. A perfect read.

Good book, fast paced and enjoyable
Good book, fast paced and enjoyable, if a little overly comedic in the characterisations, but then thats pretty much the point.

Try Gould's Book of Fish if you enjoyed...