This is really a Boy's Own read for adults. In about 1803 William Buckley, a decent English criminal, is banished to Australia on a convict ship. He later manages to escape, and for the next 32 years he lives among the natives in the wilderness – they thought him to be resurrected and so spared his life. We learn much of the Aborigine way of life and thinking as we are inducted into an age of timelessness. They laugh a lot, cry a lot and will start a tribal battle at the drop of a spear. All changed utterly with the arrival of more British ships into the Melbourne area. Despite Buckley's best efforts as guide and interpreter to establish harmony between the two sides, he was never going to succeed, for the two completely different cultures could not live together peacefully. Trying to reconcile two societies was an unrealistic expectation. Buckley's time among the Aborigines in a "heavenly" climate, where he experienced both contentment and frustration (often sexual) and the subsequent clash of two cultures, makes this an absorbing read.
