Spent the last 20 minutes reading about Pitcairn Islands... holy fucking shit, a third of the male population was in jail for being nonces at the same time. Every time I read about a new small island community there's always some weird shit going on.
It's a good read. You have to read through more than 300 pages till the action takes place in Port Jackson, but it's interesting from a convict POV. I'm not past the 500 page mark (the whole thing is nearly 900 pages long.)
I don't think they teach kids about the privations and brutality convicts faced (even the marines were treated harshly). Even when I was at school the main focus was on Aboriginals rather than the hardships convicts and early settlers faced.
McCullough's series of Roman novels has good reviews - I think I've got her Caesar one in the bundle of second hand books I picked up before Christmas.
She got herself into hot water on her views on Pitcairn Island "culture" (very related to your post) -
dulcima 1 points 1 month ago
It's a good read. You have to read through more than 300 pages till the action takes place in Port Jackson, but it's interesting from a convict POV. I'm not past the 500 page mark (the whole thing is nearly 900 pages long.)
I don't think they teach kids about the privations and brutality convicts faced (even the marines were treated harshly). Even when I was at school the main focus was on Aboriginals rather than the hardships convicts and early settlers faced.
McCullough's series of Roman novels has good reviews - I think I've got her Caesar one in the bundle of second hand books I picked up before Christmas.
She got herself into hot water on her views on Pitcairn Island "culture" (very related to your post) -
https://archive.md/8Daq1
https://www.smh.com.au/world/pitcairn-men-were-following-custom-mccullough-20041116-gdk4fe.html