A Fragile Paradise: Nature and Man in the Pacific

By Andrew Mitchell

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 000637655X
• ISBN13: 9780006376552
• Release Date: November 1990
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 256 Pages

Customer Reviews

An excellent account of an incredible personal journey.

This book chronicles one of the most interesting journeys I have read about in a long time. Mention the Pacific Islands and most people will think of paradise. This is largely because each island is populated by the friendliest of peoples and is usually found bathed in beautiful sunshine. Add to these thoughts the brightly coloured flora and fauna - much of which is found nowhere else on earth, and the crystal clear seas with their equally bright array of corals and fishes and "paradise" is just about right. For some of us, a visit to one, or perhaps even two such islands is all we might ever achieve during our lifetime. For Andrew Mitchell, however, this was never going to be enough so he embarked on an amazing journey. In the Solomons he travels by canoe to find the graves of head-hunters, in Simbo he visits the Megapode birds, then it's underwater to find a shipwreck off the coast of Gizo. In Hawaii, he explores isolated areas of outstanding beauty and in Nauru he finds deposits of pure Phosphate before finally journeying to Easter Island to ponder the fate of those Islanders who plundered their own landscape and, in so doing, eventually destroyed themselves. Fragile paradise takes a broad look at the natural history of the entire region - as seen through the eyes of one man. It is a worthwhile and fascinating read. NM