Great Southern Landings: An Anthology of Antipodean Travel

This eclectic and quirky anthology collects nearly 100 excerpts from the writings of travelers and tourists who have visited the "Antipodes": the islands of Australia and New Zealand and their neighbors. Ranging from the illuminating to the laughable, these selections from published writings have been chosen for their intrinsic interest, and they make fascinating reading at a time in the post-colonial period when both Australia and New Zealand are redefining themselves.

The extracts date from the sixteenth century to the present, and historian Jan Bassett arranges them thematically under such intriguing categories as Dreamers, Artists and Critics, Adventurers, Gold-seekers, Missionaries, Political and Social Commentators, Sporting Figures, Entertainers and Expatriates. Most of the writers represented here have left their impressions of actual visits to the Antipodes in books and journals, while others, travelling only in their minds, left accounts of imaginary voyages to distant utopias.

The contributors include Jonathan Swift, Jules Verne, Joseph Conrad, Kenneth Clark, Charles Darwin, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, Herbert Hoover, Anthony Eden, Anthony Trollope, Mark Twain, Bruce Chatwin, Jan Morris, Harold Larwood, Germaine Greer, and Peter Conrad. Bassett provides a helpful introduction to each extract and author.