In Tasmania on holiday, novelist and Chatwin biographer Nicholas Shakespeare discovered a house on a 9-mile beach and instantly decided this was where he wanted to live. He didn t know then that his ancestor was the corrupt and colourful Anthony Fenn Kemp, now known as the Father of Tasmania , or that he would find relatives living on the island. Shakespeare interweaves his personal journey into a new-found paradise with a brilliant account of the two turbulent centuries of Tasmania s history in this fascinating and timely book.