Serpent in Paradise: Among the People of the Bounty

What an amazing insight into the everyday life of the people on Pitcairn. There is no mention of the child abuse which came about later on so it gives one an unbiased view on the recent trials which hit the headlines.

This book was great. Birkett is a flawed human being--get over it. I give her kudos just for sensing that there were ominous things at work on that island. She states several times that she felt unsafe and that the young girls on the island seemed soul-weary. She was uncomfortable and felt that the islanders kept their true nature hidden. It is a great book that allows you to escape. Don't blame Birkett for being honest about her motivations and her feelings.

"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 fibbed on 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, 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, albeit imprudent. 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 fault Burkett for this because there's no 2-hour film processing kiosk on Pitcairn, and I expect that whipping out a camera and snapping away would have caused the author to be pitched off the jetty and told to swim for home. Rather, look on the Web for "official" island sites that also include photo images. Or better, zero in on "Pitcairn Island" on Google Earth and be amazed that people can happily live their entire lives on a life raft so small. As a fun exercise, try to match the structures in Adamstown as seen on Google with Dea's map of the vill

In my opinion, the critics above and below are being too hard and perhaps a little self righteous in their criticism of Dea Brikett's book. Her book provides a never before revealed insight into the culture of the people of Pitcairn Island, warts and all. There was more deceit on the part of the Pitcairner's towards her than there was on her part towards them. Far more. And yes, in a moment of weakness she slept with one of the married islanders. So what? It takes two to tango doesn't it? She is in my opinion a very gutsy lady who did her best to adapt to their very different culture. I could not put the book down.

A great read, very insightful as to how an isolated society can be. The book kind of makes you nervous about goingto Pitcairn. But, it is better to know. The author spared us an idyllic account,and I found that much more interesting than the usual voyage book. SHealso gave a lot of very interesting facts about the religion, food, work, government, etc,. In fact, I saw most of the people she named on the Pitcairn shopping mall on the Internet, so she was telling the truth about their handicrafts, anyway, I felt like I knew them all.