A witty high seas adventure about ambition, exploration and death in Australia.
In 1841, it is deemed by the elite of a London club that an expedition should set off for Australia, so that "the country be opened up, mapped and the rich lands found . . . to know the unknown" - but primarily to prevent the French from getting there first.
A year later the Bright Planet arrives in Bareheep, and then the trouble really begins for Elijah Blood, the ship's captain, who is literally sick with love; Quiet Giles, the company's botanist, worrying about his wife far away and the temptations of the flesh nearby; and Edwin Robins, who absconds from the ship's party (with much of the passengers' jewellery) to create mayhem of his own. As the ship travels up river into the heart of the continent, mortality meets the hapless crew, repeatedly.
Peter Mews' second novel is a rich and witty portrait of the imperial impulse, of optimism in the face of disaster, and a marvellous depiction of how to die in Australia.
