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More special than I expected. I have always liked Kate Grenville's writing, but this book struck a chord with me because I'm familiar with the Hawkesbury area where the Australian part of the story takes place.

It is also particularly apt because our Prime Minister just said today that "I guess our country owes its existence to a form of foreign investment by the British government in the then unsettled, or, um, scarcely settled, Great South Land." His "scarcely settled" comment seems to have been an afterthought . . . but too late.

That's what the English probably thought, since they considered the inhabitants as wildlife. They did not recognise a civilisation of any kind, and our PM, who is also the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, is several generations behind the eight-ball.

Grenville's portrayal of the cold, grubby, bleak life her characters led in London is enough to make you itchy with discomfort. The same is true of her clear description of the hard, hard Great South Land and the sparkling beauty of the River and the not-to-be-denied urge of William for his own piece of land, and then more and then more.

Really looking forward to reading the next one, as I see this is the first of a trilogy.