So, so far more than another "travel" book, a paean of praise, a hymn and a poetic rush of prose in the praise of the human spirit. of friendship, of kindness, of the sheer humanity that both author and RLS found in the islands. A simple proposal; to follow the track of Robert Louis Stevenson (the famed Tusitala - teller of tales) around the Islands of the South Seas, leads to deep, soul-felt experiences of romance and interpersonal and geographically awesome relationships.

Gavin Bell, a hardened and hard-nosed war correspondent, follows his fellow Scot into the realms of the cultures and fables of the Polynesians and mellows - just as RLS did before him - in their extensive and extending humanity.

Truly, they both find a 'paradise', faults and smells notwithstanding. Home is the hunter, home from the hills and the sailor, home from the Southern Seas.

Highly recommended for both prose and insight.

Bell has accomplished the perfect balance between biography, history, travel writing and political and social commentary. None of these elements are strained, they all flow (seemingly) effortlessly into each other. Bell brings an extraordinary cut-through honesty to his task, His writing sparkles and continually engages the reader with stories of simple and extraordinary lives, past and present. This is a superb biography of Robert Louis Stevenson's final years, but it is also an unsurpassed introduction to the people and the issues of the Pacific. Very highly recommended. ( )