by Tom Keneally review – Australia's link to an exiled emperor.
"On a chance visit to an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, the Booker prize-winning author Tom Keneally discovered an astonishing Australian connection to Napoleon Bonaparte. When the exiled emperor was imprisoned on the south Atlantic island of St Helena, he spent three months as a guest of the Balcombe family. Napoleon's Last Island is the intriguing tale of the friendship that sprung up between the Balcombe's youngest daughter, Betsy, and the man known as the Great Ogre. A friendship that, in the end, saw the Balcombes exiled to Australia.
It is October 1815. The Balcombe family reside at their St Helena residence the Briars. William Balcombe works for the East India Company. His daughters, Jane and Betsy, live a free and easy life, interrupted only by occasional bouts of education. Betsy loves this tropical paradise and never wishes to leave.
When the British navy delivers Napoleon Bonaparte to the island, a captain informs William Balcombe that St Helena is to be the new Elba. "The Ogre is to be placed halfway between Europe, Africa and South America. This is the deepest pocket they could find to put the Universal Demon in."…"
Full review here
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