GHOST COLONIES (LOST AND FOUND IN HISTORY) - ED WRIGHT IN SOUTH AFRICA

 Ghost Colonies (Lost and Found in History) - Ed Wright- 2009 - Paperback in nearly new condition. A litany of historical madness and disasters from the Vikings in Greenland and America to Friedrich Nietzsche’s Aryan supremacist sister in South America and finishing with the tragedy of Jim Jones and the Peoples’ Temple. The London Sunday Times wrote: “successful colonies are the stuff of schoolroom history: everyone knows about the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock and Captain Cook at Botany Bay. In this collection of 25 tales of colonies lost, burnt, abandoned or otherwise destroyed, Ed Wright proves that the murky history of colonial disaster is just as fascinating, and just as important.” The Brisbane Courier Mail wrote: “Ghost Colonies, written by established Pier 9 author Ed Wright, is the latest in a Lost and Found in History series to use the format, and is arguably the most interesting. From murderous Icelandic outcast Erik the Red’s Viking settlements in Greenland and his sons’ adventures in Arctic North America in 1000AD to the tragedy of Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978, this 320-page volume tells the story of 25 would-be utopias that failed to live up to the dream. They include a few of history’s better known colonial outpost failures, including the Scottish colony at Darien, Panama (1698-1700) and the failed utopian colonies of New Australia and Cosme in Paraguay at the end of the 19th century. For the most part, though, these are stories of more obscure colonial failures brought about by disease, ignorance, attacks by native people, political misfortune or other reasons. And Wright, who has researched his material thoroughly, tells them with a touch light enough to appeal to a wide readership. Australian readers will be interested in his detailed account of the rise and fall of the British colony at Victoria, Port Essington, on the north coast in what is now Arnhem Land. It fell prey to malaria and cyclones but not before explorer Ludwig Leichhardt stumbled into the settlement in late 1845 at the end of a 15-month overland journey from Moreton Bay that would make him famous. There’s mystery and tragedy in spades in this attractively designed book.