More Pacific Islands portraits

Abstract

This book, a worthy successor to the first Pacific Islands Portraits edited by the late W. Davidson and Deryck Scarr, tells the stories of more of the colourful characters. Islanders and expatriates, who lived in the Pacific islands during the past 150 years. This collection of thirteen essays deals with people with such differing views as Charles Saint Julian, the visionary who drew up constitutions through which he hoped island communities would become what the western world would consider civilised states; Apolosi R. Nawai, a messianic leader in Fiji who challenged established authority; C. M. Woodford, the naturalist who came to study nature hut finished as Resident Commissioner of the Solomon Islands Protectorate; Henry Nanpei who manipulated successive European overlords. These and others come to life in the pages of this book. There is much here for the Pacific historian hut others also will find entertainment and food for thought in these accounts.