This item is not eligible for Amazon Prime, but millions of other items are. Join Amazon Prime today. Already a member? Sign in.

20 used & new from £2.68
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Tell a Friend
Serpent in Paradise
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.
Serpent in Paradise (Hardcover)
by Dea Birkett (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  (7 customer reviews)

Availability: Available from these sellers.

20 used & new available from £2.68
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 10 used & new from £0.12
Paperback (New Ed) 17 used & new from £0.01
 
   

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire

Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire by Simon Winchester

4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  £6.99
Pitcairn's Island

Pitcairn's Island by Charles Nordhoff

5.0 out of 5 stars (2) 
› Explore similar items : Books (2)
Product details
  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Picador (23 May 1997)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330343378
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330343374
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 475,211 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
    (Publishers and authors: Improve Your Sales)
  • Other Editions: Hardcover  |  Paperback (New Ed) |  All Editions

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Product Description
Synopsis
Home to 36 islanders - descendents of the "Bounty" mutineers - Pitcairn has no cars, no crime and no doctor. For two centuries Fletcher Christian's children, whose culture is a blend of of Polynesian and 18th-century English, have lived out a social experiment. After two years' persistence and a 4000-mile sea voyage aboard a chemical tanker, Dea Birkett realized her dream of reaching this furthest outpost of the British Empire. This is an account of the author's quest for Utopia in the tiny community of Pitcairn in the South Pacific. The book reveals how Birkett found herself caught up in a web of intrigue, decades-old disputes and thwarted desires. Birkett's first travel book, "Jella", won the Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Writer award.

Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed

How to Make Money from Freelance Writing

How to Make Money from Freelance Writing by Andrew Crofts

5.0 out of 5 stars (1) 
Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox 1740 - 1832

Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox 1740 - 1832 by Stella Tillyard

4.7 out of 5 stars (6)  £6.99
Mutiny on the Bounty: A Novel of the Bounty

Mutiny on the Bounty: A Novel of the Bounty by John Boyne

3.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £8.99
Kylie

Kylie by Baz Luhrmann

5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £19.99
Stalingrad

Stalingrad by Antony Beevor

4.8 out of 5 stars (96) 
› Explore similar items : Books (9) Electronics & Photo (1)
 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star: 42%  (3)
4 star: 42%  (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star: 14%  (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Write an online review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Crashing a clique, 23 Feb 2007
By Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Serpent in Paradise (Paperback)
"No. Nawa (never) read. All ha books full of s__t. People write bad things about Pitcairn in books. Them people who go write books on Pitcairn should go wipe (i.e. emphatically go away or, perhaps, be struck dead)." - The Pitcairn "librarian" on being asked by Dea Birkett if she enjoyed reading

First off, let me say that I'm awarding five stars to SERPENT IN PARADISE because it does what I think a successful travel essay should do, i.e. grandly transport me to a faraway place that I shall never see in person, but which, due to the descriptive skills of the writer, I can envision clearly in my mind's eye, thank you very much.

English writer Birkett became fascinated with Pitcairn, the remote British colony and island home of a subpopulation of the descendents of the Bounty mutineers, while viewing a screening of "The Bounty" starring Mel Gibson. (A larger group resides on the somewhat bigger Norfolk Island isolated in its own expanse of ocean north of New Zealand.) After almost two years of dreaming of visiting the place, she managed to book passage on a Norwegian chemical tanker scheduled to steam by. Thus, after having falsely fibbed in her landing application that she represented Royal Mail International, Dea clambered ashore to live for several months among the island's thirty-eight inhabitants.

The author has been pilloried in other reviews, which have described her as being flawed, foolish, insecure, contemptible, self-serving, shallow, deceitful, condescending, screwy, voyeuristic, narcissistic, and a gossip. Well, gee, that pretty much describes, on one point or another, the flip side of just about everyone, doesn't it? Get over it! And, I could add, that the reader can infer from SERPENT IN PARADISE that the Pitcairners themselves are tribal, petty, suspicious, compulsive, repressed, and eccentric. But, I don't hold those against them because they're also traits of the human condition that balance out the nobler ones, also possessed by all concerned, both author and subjects. And let's ignore for the duration of this review the convictions of child molestation recently found against several Pitcairn males by the British authorities. (At least Dea's one night stand with a married islander was consensual sex between two lonely adults. Hey, I'll bet that's never happened before.) So, now what?

The most glaring deficiency of this book is the lack of a picture section. However, I don't hold this against Burkett because there are no 24-hour film processors on Pitcairn, and I expect that whipping o