New book: Duck and green peas! Forever! Finding utopia in Tasmania

On 12 October I launched my latest book: Duck and green peas! Forever! finding utopia in Tasmania.  In the 1820s a convict girl told her master that the free settlers should get the hell out of Van Diemen's Land. It was the convicts' island, they would rule, and it would be duck and green peas! Forever!

I love this way of describing gaining your heart's desire, and I wondered who else tried to find it in Tasmania. This book is the result. I looked at everyone who has tried to find – happiness, a comfortable life, paradise, however you describe it – from Aborigines and convicts to hippies, greenies, industrialists, communists, right down to today's climate change refugees.

The book is available from all bookshops and costs $45. It's lavishly illustrated with alll the best images of Tasmania I could find.