Betrayal. Shipwreck. Murder. Sexual Slavery. Courage
A Spine-Chilling Chapter in Australian History
Batavia combines in just the one tale the birth of the world's first corporation, the brutality of colonisation, the battle of good vs evil, the derring-do of sea-faring adventure, ship-wreck, mutiny, love, lust, blood-lust, petty fascist dictatorship, criminality, a reign of terror, murders most foul, sexual slavery, natural nobility, survival, retribution, rescue, first contact with native peoples and so much more.
Described by author Peter FitzSimons as "a true Adults Only version of Lord of the Flies, meeting Nightmare on Elm Street," the story is set in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. The magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is just about to break into the open when, just off the coast of Western Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night….
'Far and away the greatest story in Australian History, if not the world's' - Peter FitzSimons
Former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons is a well respected columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and Sun-Herald and television presenter on Fox Sports. He co-hosted a radio shows with Mike Carlton and Doug Mulray, has interviewed famous people around the globe from George Bush to Diego Maradona and written eighteen best-selling books. He is the biographer not only of World Cup winning Wallaby captains, Nick Farr-Jones and John Eales, but also former Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, boxer Les Darcy, aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and war heroine Nancy Wake. In 2001 he was Australia's biggest selling non-fiction author, and duplicated that feat in 2004, with his book on Kokoda. He has been Australia's best-selling non-fiction author in the last decade.
Batavia
Random House Australia
Author: Peter FitzSimons
Price: $49.95
Question: Why do you think it is that this part of Australian history is not more widely known?
Peter FitzSimons: It is the sort of story that when I came across it I was absolutely stunned for what a good story it is. I am in the business of telling stories; it is what I do for a living. What I wanted to do was to take it from being a historical text to make it feel like a novel, to research it and to try and make the reader feel like they are right in the middle of it. Every story has its contours and this one has everything: mutiny, murder, mayhem, shipwreck, sexual slavery, revenge, redemption, rescue, justice, first indigenous contact between Europeans and Indigenous people as well as an adventure on the high seas.
I was stunned that such a fantastic story wasn't better known although it is fairly well known in Western Australia but it's not at all known east of Kalgoorlie.
Question: What research went into Batavia?
MORE