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Lost Paradise: From Mutiny on the Bounty to a Modern-Day Legacy of Sexual Mayhem, the Dark Secrets of Pitcairn Island Revealed
Pitcairn Island -- remote and wild in the South Pacific, a place of towering cliffs and lashing surf -- is home to descendants of Fletcher Christian and the Mutiny on the Bounty crew, who fled there with a group of Tahitian maidens after deposing their captain, William Bligh, and seizing his ship in 1789.
Shrouded in myth, the island was idealized by outsiders, who considered it a tropical Shangri-La. But as the world was to discover two centuries after the mutiny, it was also a place of sinister secrets. In this riveting account, Kathy Marks tells the disturbing saga and asks profound questions about human behavior.
In 2000, police descended on the British territory -- a lump of volcanic rock hundreds of miles from the nearest inhabited land -- to investigate an allegation of rape of a fifteen-year-old girl. They found themselves speaking to dozens of women and uncovering a trail of child abuse dating back at least three generations.
Scarcely a Pitcairn man was untainted by the allegations, it seemed, and barely a girl growing up on the island, home to just forty-seven people, had escaped. Yet most islanders, including the victims' mothers, feigned ignorance or claimed it was South Pacific "culture" -- the Pitcairn "way of life."
The ensuing trials would tear the close-knit, interrelated community apart, for every family contained an offender or a victim -- often both. The very future of the island, dependent on its men and their prowess in the longboats, appeared at risk. The islanders were resentful toward British authorities, whom they regarded as colonialists, and the newly arrived newspeople, who asked nettlesome questions and whose daily dispatches were closely scrutinized on the Internet.
The court case commanded worldwide attention. And as a succession of men passed through Pitcairn's makeshift courtroom, disturbing questions surfaced. How had the abuse remained hidden so long? Was it inevitable in such a place? Was Pitcairn a real-life Lord of the Flies?
One of only six journalists to cover the trials, Marks lived on Pitcairn for six weeks, with the accused men as her neighbors. She depicts, vividly, the attractions and everyday difficulties of living on a remote tropical island. Moreover, outside court, she had daily encounters with the islanders, not all of them civil, and observed firsthand how the tiny, claustrophobic community the gossip, the feuding, the claustrophobic intimacy -- and the power dynamics that had allowed the abuse to flourish.
Marks followed the legal and human saga through to its recent conclusion. She uncovers a society gone badly astray, leaving lives shattered and codes a paradise truly lost.
Shrouded in myth, the island was idealized by outsiders, who considered it a tropical Shangri-La. But as the world was to discover two centuries after the mutiny, it was also a place of sinister secrets. In this riveting account, Kathy Marks tells the disturbing saga and asks profound questions about human behavior.
In 2000, police descended on the British territory -- a lump of volcanic rock hundreds of miles from the nearest inhabited land -- to investigate an allegation of rape of a fifteen-year-old girl. They found themselves speaking to dozens of women and uncovering a trail of child abuse dating back at least three generations.
Scarcely a Pitcairn man was untainted by the allegations, it seemed, and barely a girl growing up on the island, home to just forty-seven people, had escaped. Yet most islanders, including the victims' mothers, feigned ignorance or claimed it was South Pacific "culture" -- the Pitcairn "way of life."
The ensuing trials would tear the close-knit, interrelated community apart, for every family contained an offender or a victim -- often both. The very future of the island, dependent on its men and their prowess in the longboats, appeared at risk. The islanders were resentful toward British authorities, whom they regarded as colonialists, and the newly arrived newspeople, who asked nettlesome questions and whose daily dispatches were closely scrutinized on the Internet.
The court case commanded worldwide attention. And as a succession of men passed through Pitcairn's makeshift courtroom, disturbing questions surfaced. How had the abuse remained hidden so long? Was it inevitable in such a place? Was Pitcairn a real-life Lord of the Flies?
One of only six journalists to cover the trials, Marks lived on Pitcairn for six weeks, with the accused men as her neighbors. She depicts, vividly, the attractions and everyday difficulties of living on a remote tropical island. Moreover, outside court, she had daily encounters with the islanders, not all of them civil, and observed firsthand how the tiny, claustrophobic community the gossip, the feuding, the claustrophobic intimacy -- and the power dynamics that had allowed the abuse to flourish.
Marks followed the legal and human saga through to its recent conclusion. She uncovers a society gone badly astray, leaving lives shattered and codes a paradise truly lost.
330 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2008
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July 9, 2018
I was watching a documentary the other day that contrasted the male-dominated chimps with the matriarchal bonobos and I was struck by just how chimp-like Pitcairn society was.
The physically-strongest men dominate every single thing on the island. Male bonding is very tight. There is universal acknowledgement of the self-appointed leader (often very grudgingly given) and there seems to be an agreement not to express violence towards each other which stops the society from becoming murderous and allows the males to do exactly as they please.
As with chimps, all the females rank below the lowest male. They cannot physically do the male tasks of running the longboats in treacherous seas out to the passing ships to obtain food, mail and all manufactured goods and on- and offload people and this is what life on Pitcairn depends on. This lack of ability to provide for themselves gives the women no choice but to accept their lowly status and all the problems that having no personal power brings including almost ubiquitous domestic violence and sexual attacks. But, knowing nothing else, and there being no possibility of effective protest anyway, this way of life is accepted not just as perfectly normal but has the defence of being their traditional and cultural way of life at least in the eyes of the men.
This book is concerned with the culture of accepted incest, paedophilia, molestation and rape of girls as young as 3, but generally from age 9 from which the mothers, often victims in their own time, are powerless to either prevent or stop for fear that they and their family be ostracised and on an island of less than 50 people, that matters.
The investigation and subsequent trials took 7 years and many millions of pounds. A whole legal apparatus had to be set up on the island. Against that, there were online campaigns to stop the men being convicted saying everything from the girls tempted the men, that they were sexually advanced for their years, that it was island culture and nothing wrong with it to the fact that if the men were imprisoned the island would die as there would be no one to run the longboats and heavy physical work. People all over the world who are generally disgusted with paedophilia and rape felt that an exception should be made for these men, 'romantic' descendants of Fletcher Christian, chief mutineer on the Bounty.
Alongside this the women who had been encouraged to finally report the sexual attacks on them when they were children faced enormous and often exceedingly nasty and spiteful pressure from their families to refuse to give evidence and to drop their charges and most did. Those that didn't, that bravely gave evidence and saw their attackers convicted now have to live with the fact that after all no one really cared about them, not the British who had been shamed into paying attention to this deserted colonial outpost, not their families, some of whom would never speak to them again, not the media who saw them as bringing low the Utopian paradise of a tiny, isolated tropical island, not any one at all.
If they had cared, the men, some charged with multiple gang rapes of prepubescent girls, wouldn't have been given community service, imprisonment within the home or a couple of years behind "bars" only being let out 3 or 4 times a week and to be able to have family parties behind the fence (which passes for prison security) once a week.
The prison was built by the prisoners. Note the absence of a gate!
The book made me sick. The author did a good job of exposing why everyone should be moved off the island, dispersed into other communities and their wicked, brutish idea of civilization allowed to pass into history with the certainty of no more child abuse. But no, in this day and age of PC concerns, millions upon millions are being spent on this island to bring it up into the 21st century, although it wasn't poor before. But its still being run by the convicted rapists, the women still have no power and I am not convinced that there is any way young girls can be protected in Pitcairn.
The physically-strongest men dominate every single thing on the island. Male bonding is very tight. There is universal acknowledgement of the self-appointed leader (often very grudgingly given) and there seems to be an agreement not to express violence towards each other which stops the society from becoming murderous and allows the males to do exactly as they please.
As with chimps, all the females rank below the lowest male. They cannot physically do the male tasks of running the longboats in treacherous seas out to the passing ships to obtain food, mail and all manufactured goods and on- and offload people and this is what life on Pitcairn depends on. This lack of ability to provide for themselves gives the women no choice but to accept their lowly status and all the problems that having no personal power brings including almost ubiquitous domestic violence and sexual attacks. But, knowing nothing else, and there being no possibility of effective protest anyway, this way of life is accepted not just as perfectly normal but has the defence of being their traditional and cultural way of life at least in the eyes of the men.
This book is concerned with the culture of accepted incest, paedophilia, molestation and rape of girls as young as 3, but generally from age 9 from which the mothers, often victims in their own time, are powerless to either prevent or stop for fear that they and their family be ostracised and on an island of less than 50 people, that matters.
The investigation and subsequent trials took 7 years and many millions of pounds. A whole legal apparatus had to be set up on the island. Against that, there were online campaigns to stop the men being convicted saying everything from the girls tempted the men, that they were sexually advanced for their years, that it was island culture and nothing wrong with it to the fact that if the men were imprisoned the island would die as there would be no one to run the longboats and heavy physical work. People all over the world who are generally disgusted with paedophilia and rape felt that an exception should be made for these men, 'romantic' descendants of Fletcher Christian, chief mutineer on the Bounty.
Alongside this the women who had been encouraged to finally report the sexual attacks on them when they were children faced enormous and often exceedingly nasty and spiteful pressure from their families to refuse to give evidence and to drop their charges and most did. Those that didn't, that bravely gave evidence and saw their attackers convicted now have to live with the fact that after all no one really cared about them, not the British who had been shamed into paying attention to this deserted colonial outpost, not their families, some of whom would never speak to them again, not the media who saw them as bringing low the Utopian paradise of a tiny, isolated tropical island, not any one at all.
If they had cared, the men, some charged with multiple gang rapes of prepubescent girls, wouldn't have been given community service, imprisonment within the home or a couple of years behind "bars" only being let out 3 or 4 times a week and to be able to have family parties behind the fence (which passes for prison security) once a week.
The prison was built by the prisoners. Note the absence of a gate!
The book made me sick. The author did a good job of exposing why everyone should be moved off the island, dispersed into other communities and their wicked, brutish idea of civilization allowed to pass into history with the certainty of no more child abuse. But no, in this day and age of PC concerns, millions upon millions are being spent on this island to bring it up into the 21st century, although it wasn't poor before. But its still being run by the convicted rapists, the women still have no power and I am not convinced that there is any way young girls can be protected in Pitcairn.
December 10, 2008
Kathy Marks was one of just six journalists who were allowed access to Pitcairn Island (the home of approximately 50 descendants of Fletcher Christian and other mutineers from the HMS Bounty) to cover the trials of several men who were accused of systematically raping the community's pre-adolescent and adolescent girls -- a pattern of abuse that appears to have been established several generations back. Marks does an effective job of demolishing the various defenses that Pitcairners (and their fans around the world) have made for the abuse; she also conveys the truly bizarre circumstances of a community so isolated that it depends on some of its most predatory members -- convicted child molesters, no less -- to maintain its physical contact with the outside world.
This is a disturbing story, but one which victims of abuse will easily recognize: The signs were so plain that it wasn't even a question of knowing where to look, but for years the British government, the Seventh-Day Adventist pastors, the visiting teachers... NOBODY did anything to stop what was happening, even when they "knew" not to let Pitcairn men near their own daughters. In fact, for decades Pitcairn and the outside world would collude in promoting the idea that their girls were sexually precocious, until finally one woman came forward, and then another, and...
This is a disturbing story, but one which victims of abuse will easily recognize: The signs were so plain that it wasn't even a question of knowing where to look, but for years the British government, the Seventh-Day Adventist pastors, the visiting teachers... NOBODY did anything to stop what was happening, even when they "knew" not to let Pitcairn men near their own daughters. In fact, for decades Pitcairn and the outside world would collude in promoting the idea that their girls were sexually precocious, until finally one woman came forward, and then another, and...
January 17, 2018
‘The unforgivable crime in the Pitcairners’ eyes was not sexually assaulting children, but betraying the island.’
Pitcairn is a British outpost in the South Pacific that has no airstrip and is inhabited by 47 people (they share only 4 surnames – Christian, Brown, Warren and Young) most descended from Fletcher Christian and his fellow ‘Bounty’ mutineers.
In 2003 13 men were charged (7 of them lived on Pitcairn) with 96 offences dating back to the 1960s. In Sep-2004 the author spends 6 weeks on the island reporting on the trials.
This is a remarkable book that provides you with such a graphic view of Pitcairn as it was in 2004. Claustrophobic, bitter, tense, rugged and morally corrupt. This small island also brings its difficulties for the 6 media people living together. There is no escape as tempers fray. A lot of the islanders are hostile towards them and living in such close proximity to each other meant that emotions were at boiling point.
It is fascinating stuff and I am with the author on her views all the way. The first half of the book is taken up with the 6 weeks of trials. The second half goes on to show that this is not a one-off and going through the ages this abuse of Pitcairn girls has always gone on. She focuses on some of the outsiders and also the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Could more have been done? Then there is the appeal from the guilty men that are saying that Pitcairn is not a British colony so British law does not apply. The island’s reputation of somewhere perfect to live is absolutely shattered.
Pitcairn is a British outpost in the South Pacific that has no airstrip and is inhabited by 47 people (they share only 4 surnames – Christian, Brown, Warren and Young) most descended from Fletcher Christian and his fellow ‘Bounty’ mutineers.
In 2003 13 men were charged (7 of them lived on Pitcairn) with 96 offences dating back to the 1960s. In Sep-2004 the author spends 6 weeks on the island reporting on the trials.
This is a remarkable book that provides you with such a graphic view of Pitcairn as it was in 2004. Claustrophobic, bitter, tense, rugged and morally corrupt. This small island also brings its difficulties for the 6 media people living together. There is no escape as tempers fray. A lot of the islanders are hostile towards them and living in such close proximity to each other meant that emotions were at boiling point.
It is fascinating stuff and I am with the author on her views all the way. The first half of the book is taken up with the 6 weeks of trials. The second half goes on to show that this is not a one-off and going through the ages this abuse of Pitcairn girls has always gone on. She focuses on some of the outsiders and also the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Could more have been done? Then there is the appeal from the guilty men that are saying that Pitcairn is not a British colony so British law does not apply. The island’s reputation of somewhere perfect to live is absolutely shattered.
October 30, 2012
After reading this book, despite Clark Gable, you won’t think of the mutiny on HMAV Bounty quite the same way ever again.
The Bounty, as most of us know, was the vessel that Fletcher Christian and his fellows seized from “Capitan” (Lieutenant, actually) Bligh and eventually landed at Pitcairn Island along with several women from Tahiti.
We all “know” these facts, juts like we all “know” many things. Mostly because they have been taught or presented to us in ways that are palatable and easy to digest. But often such facts are found to be fiction. No matter what you think about the main subject matter of this book (more on that later), the book does contain a more balanced look at the mutiny itself and how what we “know” became so.
This book is not fiction.
I have forgotten why I placed “Lost Paradise” on my TBR list originally. Maybe I saw a copy on a shelf, maybe I saw someone else mark it as TBR or as read. Either way, I had no preconceived expectations nor did I recall what it was about. But, it was a real eye-opener. (Note: Since writing this review (and before posting it) I think I know why I added it, but the fact remains I forgot everything I knew about the contents before opening the cover.)
Before going further, let me say that the book, its author and the serious subject that it covers has been steeped in bitter recriminations for almost 10 years. But no matter which side of the argument you take, this is a well-written, well-researched book. (I’m bending over backwards to describe things as unbiased as I can, lest I reveal more than I want to.)
If you buy into the myth and the mystique of the mutineers and their descendants, then like many people in the book, you may consider it all scurrilous lies that were started or bent to serve a darker political agenda: depopulating the island.
If you accept the claims and charges that were presented in the book, you might think that forced relocation into larger, more “normal” communities is the only true answer instead of the half-measures that seem to have been applied.
I doubt that anyone is happy to have read this book. Informed, yes; happy, no.
The author is an accomplished journalist. That she is a woman and an “outsider” is partly why her attempts to report on this have been denigrated by those within the community that gainsay the claims. But, if it had been a man who had been there and sought interviews and wrote stories about the events, I strongly doubt that they would have been given a warmer reception. Nor, would their work be any less raged against.
Ten years ago (more-or-less) the events in this book made news world wide. I’m a pretty well-read person and I had forgotten about them. This book is the best “condensation” of that period and beyond that exists today. Thanks to Sandy, I read it in just over one day. It's not a "4", but it's not really a "3" either. Call it a good "3.5" stars.
******
Society in the body of English Overseas Territorial Law has made its judgement about these events. You may not agree: you might be part of a vocal minority that claims that injustice was done to those accused. You might also be someone who thinks that the penalties apportioned out (and the consequent enforcement of those penalties) was a joke; a bitter pill for those who risked everything. I'm not your conscience and I'm not going to get preachy about what I thought was right or wrong. "Coulda, woulda, shoulda" is my broker's favorite saying. I think this book is worth your time to make up your own mind. I have more books to read.
The Bounty, as most of us know, was the vessel that Fletcher Christian and his fellows seized from “Capitan” (Lieutenant, actually) Bligh and eventually landed at Pitcairn Island along with several women from Tahiti.
We all “know” these facts, juts like we all “know” many things. Mostly because they have been taught or presented to us in ways that are palatable and easy to digest. But often such facts are found to be fiction. No matter what you think about the main subject matter of this book (more on that later), the book does contain a more balanced look at the mutiny itself and how what we “know” became so.
This book is not fiction.
I have forgotten why I placed “Lost Paradise” on my TBR list originally. Maybe I saw a copy on a shelf, maybe I saw someone else mark it as TBR or as read. Either way, I had no preconceived expectations nor did I recall what it was about. But, it was a real eye-opener. (Note: Since writing this review (and before posting it) I think I know why I added it, but the fact remains I forgot everything I knew about the contents before opening the cover.)
Before going further, let me say that the book, its author and the serious subject that it covers has been steeped in bitter recriminations for almost 10 years. But no matter which side of the argument you take, this is a well-written, well-researched book. (I’m bending over backwards to describe things as unbiased as I can, lest I reveal more than I want to.)
If you buy into the myth and the mystique of the mutineers and their descendants, then like many people in the book, you may consider it all scurrilous lies that were started or bent to serve a darker political agenda: depopulating the island.
If you accept the claims and charges that were presented in the book, you might think that forced relocation into larger, more “normal” communities is the only true answer instead of the half-measures that seem to have been applied.
I doubt that anyone is happy to have read this book. Informed, yes; happy, no.
The author is an accomplished journalist. That she is a woman and an “outsider” is partly why her attempts to report on this have been denigrated by those within the community that gainsay the claims. But, if it had been a man who had been there and sought interviews and wrote stories about the events, I strongly doubt that they would have been given a warmer reception. Nor, would their work be any less raged against.
Ten years ago (more-or-less) the events in this book made news world wide. I’m a pretty well-read person and I had forgotten about them. This book is the best “condensation” of that period and beyond that exists today. Thanks to Sandy, I read it in just over one day. It's not a "4", but it's not really a "3" either. Call it a good "3.5" stars.
******
Society in the body of English Overseas Territorial Law has made its judgement about these events. You may not agree: you might be part of a vocal minority that claims that injustice was done to those accused. You might also be someone who thinks that the penalties apportioned out (and the consequent enforcement of those penalties) was a joke; a bitter pill for those who risked everything. I'm not your conscience and I'm not going to get preachy about what I thought was right or wrong. "Coulda, woulda, shoulda" is my broker's favorite saying. I think this book is worth your time to make up your own mind. I have more books to read.
July 28, 2014
We may be tempted — in the normal ebb and flow of casual conversation — to speculate on social hypotheticals, such as, "what if you had a group of people on a remote, isolated island who could operate (more or less) independently of society and its norms?" This book answers that question, loudly and uncomfortably.
I will be the first one to allow the inevitable counterpoint: this is only one single, solitary example and is not necessarily representative of any culture or any intrinsic aspect of human nature (genetically hard-wired, culturally indoctrinated or otherwise). It is, however, a fascinating and revolting example that we would be unwise to ignore.
The fantasy of a tropical paradise is an alluring one. It is both distressing and insulting to accept that when human beings are left alone in the absence of authority, the foul aspects of our ancestry rise. Here, however, is a case study.
First, the founders of this island (by definition) were criminal malcontents . . . mutineers who rejected the rule of law, as well as sexists and racists who thought nothing of kidnapping Polynesian women to take as their "brides." So one might argue that this is not a "fair" and representative situation. Conversely, one might just as easily argue that it is, and for precisely the same reasons.
Setting that issue aside, I found the procedural and governmental aspects of this story compelling. Someone, somewhere had to decide how to deal with a potentially costly, embarrassing and convoluted crisis that could have been ignored or swept under the rug. (And how often has that happened?) Now we have to send judges and lawyers to an island at the absolute edge of the world, and we have to get them ashore using open boats operated by the defendants. Colonial disputes have existed as long as mercantilism has thrived, but perhaps never before has it been so ludicrous.
Lost Paradise spends a lot of pages dealing with the details, but I encourage readers to stick it out to the end. The unavoidable question that makes us all squirm is this: "How many times in the history of the world has this happened?"
I will be the first one to allow the inevitable counterpoint: this is only one single, solitary example and is not necessarily representative of any culture or any intrinsic aspect of human nature (genetically hard-wired, culturally indoctrinated or otherwise). It is, however, a fascinating and revolting example that we would be unwise to ignore.
The fantasy of a tropical paradise is an alluring one. It is both distressing and insulting to accept that when human beings are left alone in the absence of authority, the foul aspects of our ancestry rise. Here, however, is a case study.
First, the founders of this island (by definition) were criminal malcontents . . . mutineers who rejected the rule of law, as well as sexists and racists who thought nothing of kidnapping Polynesian women to take as their "brides." So one might argue that this is not a "fair" and representative situation. Conversely, one might just as easily argue that it is, and for precisely the same reasons.
Setting that issue aside, I found the procedural and governmental aspects of this story compelling. Someone, somewhere had to decide how to deal with a potentially costly, embarrassing and convoluted crisis that could have been ignored or swept under the rug. (And how often has that happened?) Now we have to send judges and lawyers to an island at the absolute edge of the world, and we have to get them ashore using open boats operated by the defendants. Colonial disputes have existed as long as mercantilism has thrived, but perhaps never before has it been so ludicrous.
Lost Paradise spends a lot of pages dealing with the details, but I encourage readers to stick it out to the end. The unavoidable question that makes us all squirm is this: "How many times in the history of the world has this happened?"
May 15, 2009
This book tells the real-life story of Pitcairn Island's history, focusing on its recent child rape and sexual abuse scandal.
Pitcairn island's modern history starts with the mutiny on the Bounty, a story made famous through numerous movies: in the late 1700's, Britain sent a ship to look for breadfruit in Tahiti in the hopes that it would provide a dependable food supply for slaves in the West Indies. The Hollywood version of the story describes the harsh treatment of the crew by Captain William Bligh, and the eventual mutiny led by a ship's mate, Fletcher Christian. The mutineers put Bligh and a small group of loyal men on a small boat -- amazingly, they eventually made it back to England (and began telling the story that would eventually become legendary). The mutineers would be hanged as traitors if they returned to England, or even if they were eventually discovered anywhere that the British Empire's long arm reached. While looking for a suitable location, they eventually stumbled over Pitcairn Island, which seemed to be a place that would support, and better yet, was mischarted on maps and therefore more difficult to find.
Over time, Pitcairn Island established more regular contact with the outside world -- but even by the 1990's, it still had no airport or even regularly scheduled boat service. In 1999, a young woman on the island talked to a police officer that was on assignment from the UK, and told the officer that she had raped. As investigators talked to more people, and eventually every woman on the island, they discovered that the island had a long history of sexual abuse and rape of young girls (and possibly boys), and that the island's culture by and large seemed to tacitly approve of it -- or at least, seemed to ignore it. The details of the abuse are stomach-churning in their own right, and made all the more worse by the attitude of islanders in response.
The investigation lead to a trial, which presented a number of challenges. The island is amazingly remote, and difficult to land on: everything can only be transferred to the island in relatively small boats. Many islanders were concerned that the island would be destroyed if all of the accused -- a large percentage of the male population of the island -- were put in prison. Also, the defendants claimed that Pitcairn wasn't under British jurisdiction.
The book covers the history of the island quite well, describing the background and context of the island's history, without being overwhelming. It also describes most of the facts of the trial quite well. The author, a journalist that traveled to the island for the entire island, did a great job of piecing together what seems to have actually occurred in the years and decades before the trial.
There are only two criticisms I have of this book: first, the author makes herself a large part of the story, describing her situation, personal experiences, and interaction with the islanders. To be fair, the number of journalists on the island was very small, and they were in close daily contact with the people of the island, but I felt that it detracted from telling the story of the island itself. Secondly, the author comes across as biased. In listening to the testimony and reading about the trials, it's difficult to believe that most of the islanders didn't rape and assault young girls, and I don't think the author should have to pretend otherwise. And yet, the writing doesn't sound like someone examining the situation, presenting their best account of what happened, and describing the obvious conclusions. The facts and testimony speak for themselves; the book's writing seems like it's trying to further convince the reader of the defendant's guilt, and ends up just being distracting.
Besides those two points, the book is excellent. The story is compelling, and the writing is easy to get through. Anyone that finds the island or the trial interesting would definitely enjoy this book.
Pitcairn island's modern history starts with the mutiny on the Bounty, a story made famous through numerous movies: in the late 1700's, Britain sent a ship to look for breadfruit in Tahiti in the hopes that it would provide a dependable food supply for slaves in the West Indies. The Hollywood version of the story describes the harsh treatment of the crew by Captain William Bligh, and the eventual mutiny led by a ship's mate, Fletcher Christian. The mutineers put Bligh and a small group of loyal men on a small boat -- amazingly, they eventually made it back to England (and began telling the story that would eventually become legendary). The mutineers would be hanged as traitors if they returned to England, or even if they were eventually discovered anywhere that the British Empire's long arm reached. While looking for a suitable location, they eventually stumbled over Pitcairn Island, which seemed to be a place that would support, and better yet, was mischarted on maps and therefore more difficult to find.
Over time, Pitcairn Island established more regular contact with the outside world -- but even by the 1990's, it still had no airport or even regularly scheduled boat service. In 1999, a young woman on the island talked to a police officer that was on assignment from the UK, and told the officer that she had raped. As investigators talked to more people, and eventually every woman on the island, they discovered that the island had a long history of sexual abuse and rape of young girls (and possibly boys), and that the island's culture by and large seemed to tacitly approve of it -- or at least, seemed to ignore it. The details of the abuse are stomach-churning in their own right, and made all the more worse by the attitude of islanders in response.
The investigation lead to a trial, which presented a number of challenges. The island is amazingly remote, and difficult to land on: everything can only be transferred to the island in relatively small boats. Many islanders were concerned that the island would be destroyed if all of the accused -- a large percentage of the male population of the island -- were put in prison. Also, the defendants claimed that Pitcairn wasn't under British jurisdiction.
The book covers the history of the island quite well, describing the background and context of the island's history, without being overwhelming. It also describes most of the facts of the trial quite well. The author, a journalist that traveled to the island for the entire island, did a great job of piecing together what seems to have actually occurred in the years and decades before the trial.
There are only two criticisms I have of this book: first, the author makes herself a large part of the story, describing her situation, personal experiences, and interaction with the islanders. To be fair, the number of journalists on the island was very small, and they were in close daily contact with the people of the island, but I felt that it detracted from telling the story of the island itself. Secondly, the author comes across as biased. In listening to the testimony and reading about the trials, it's difficult to believe that most of the islanders didn't rape and assault young girls, and I don't think the author should have to pretend otherwise. And yet, the writing doesn't sound like someone examining the situation, presenting their best account of what happened, and describing the obvious conclusions. The facts and testimony speak for themselves; the book's writing seems like it's trying to further convince the reader of the defendant's guilt, and ends up just being distracting.
Besides those two points, the book is excellent. The story is compelling, and the writing is easy to get through. Anyone that finds the island or the trial interesting would definitely enjoy this book.
January 11, 2024
Pitcairn Island is one of the most difficult to reach inhabited islands in the world, with 40-50 people living on a small rock 3400 miles to the northeast of New Zealand and 3400 miles to the west of Chile. Even Tahiti, the nearest island with a large population, is 1400 miles away; Mangareva, the nearest island with any population at all, is 300 miles. The easiest way to reach the island is by flying to Tahiti (8.5 hours nonstop from LAX), waiting for one of the twice-weekly four-hour flights to Mangareva, and then chartering a yacht to Pitcairn, where you'll arrive two days later. It's not technically the most remote inhabited place on earth (that's Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, over 1500 miles from anything) but it's damn close.
If you've heard of Pitcairn at all, you've likely heard how it was founded: by British mutineers from HMS Bounty in 1790, seeking a refuge in the South Pacific that would prevent them from being recaptured and brought back to face trial in England. As the myth goes, those mutineers' descendants continue to populate the island, living on a quasi-independent, tax-free refuge, in the purest state of freedom available in the 21st century.
The large majority of those male descendants were also rapists and child molesters, as Marks documents meticulously. When British detectives finally looked into the situation starting in 1999, they concluded that "nearly every girl growing up on the island in the last forty years had been abused, and nearly every man had been an offender."
Marks debunks every possible way of downplaying the offenses. No, this was not a typical Polynesian practice, an example of the culture of promiscuity documented by Margaret Mead; these were cases of adult men assaulting girls as young as five, not preteens experimenting with each other. In no Polynesian culture is that normative. No, the girls were not consenting; often they emerged bloodied and with lifelong injuries, leaving one victim barren.
No, this was not a hidden practice by a few bad apples; almost every man participated, with even gang rapes committed in full public view. One mother in 1978 interrupted a meeting of the island council, waving the bloody panties of her 11-year-old daughter who had just been raped by one of the councilors, Brian Young; Young and his friends literally turned their backs and ignored her. Everyone knew what was going on. No, this was not a recent development. Pitcairn was founded by violent men who kidnapped Tahitian women (including young girls) and forced them to bear children to populate their new society. This has been going on all along.
Marks unravels other myths too. The mutineers put out an image of having created an idyllic society in the tropics. In reality, it unraveled nearly as soon as it was created. 15 men, nine British and six Tahitian, initially settled the island in 1790. The British's determination to keep all farmable land for themselves caused an outbreak of ethnic warfare, at the end of which only four Brits, and no Tahitian men, were left alive by the end of 1793. Of those four left, one figured out how to distill alcohol and drunkenly threw himself off a cliff, after which another was murdered by the other two for fear he was trying to steal their wives. The second-to-last died of asthma in 1800, leaving only one adult man, John Adams, on the island after a decade. It's hard to imagine how the settlement could have gone worse.
From the 1830s onward, Pitcairn has been a Crown possession, reliant on massive charity from the UK in the form of unprofitable visits by shipping trips and more direct subsidies in order to survive. By the time of Marks' writing in 2009, the Brits were spending $3.9 million a year on an island of 51 people, or $76,000 per capita. These are the biggest welfare queens in the whole world, and for years they were participants in a massive criminal conspiracy to abuse children. As part of their defense, they had the temerity to argue they actually weren't a Crown possession at all, and could not be subject to British law. They'd like to cash the checks and not be prosecuted, thank you kindly.
The bulk of the book is about Operation Unique, the unprecedented British-New Zealander investigation into the decades of sexual abuse occasioned by disclosures from victims in 1999. If you can stomach the subject matter, the result is a fascinating, up-close look at how police, prosecutors, and judges attempted a nearly impossible task: criminally trying most of the most powerful figures in a small community, in that community, using testimony from current and former members of that community, when that community feels (not without basis) that without the defendants they will all die.
Pitcairn lives by the kindness of the "longboat," actually a powerboat that has to navigate a treacherous route between the island and passing cargo ships to acquire all the goods the island needs to survive. The longboat was captained by community leaders like Steve Christian and Dave Brown — pedophiles and rapists under indictment for sundry assaults. Would the longboat die without them? (And because they refused to train others for the duty, perhaps sensing the value in making themselves indispensable and thus unaccountable?)
Ultimately many of the men are convicted, sentenced to community service, home confinement, or (in the worst cases) a few years in a jail they built themselves on the island. As Marks notes, it hardly looks like justice compared to UK or New Zealand practices, where sentences would be much longer and not served in a Pablo Escobar-esque prison the inmates control. But the herculean efforts needed to even get that far — just the logistics necessary to house and feed the judges, lawyers, and journalists who arrived for the trial — are remarkable all the same. It is not hard to understand why the British attitude had, for years, been one of neglect. It's a tiny place, where establishing the rule of law would be unbelievably difficult. Small wonder it took two hundred years for anyone to really try.
While not exactly easy to read, Marks' book is worth the effort if only for what it tells us about how societies operate, how a social contract is built and maintained. In philosophy classes, over readings of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls, one argues about situations like this one: people, on previously unoccupied land, not subject to external laws, setting up a government and rules from scratch. What do they do? What should they do? One lesson of Pitcairn is that while they can devolve into anarchy (as the original mutineers did), they needn't. A stable order can be created and maintained, based on reciprocity and mutual knowledge that cooperation is necessary to survive. Brian Skyrms' writing on the stag hunt comes to mind. But that same spirit of reciprocity and cooperation that prevents people from killing one another also can prevent them from subjecting each other to any constraints at all. The same survival need that makes society possible can make accountability impossible. What do we do with that realization?
If you've heard of Pitcairn at all, you've likely heard how it was founded: by British mutineers from HMS Bounty in 1790, seeking a refuge in the South Pacific that would prevent them from being recaptured and brought back to face trial in England. As the myth goes, those mutineers' descendants continue to populate the island, living on a quasi-independent, tax-free refuge, in the purest state of freedom available in the 21st century.
The large majority of those male descendants were also rapists and child molesters, as Marks documents meticulously. When British detectives finally looked into the situation starting in 1999, they concluded that "nearly every girl growing up on the island in the last forty years had been abused, and nearly every man had been an offender."
Marks debunks every possible way of downplaying the offenses. No, this was not a typical Polynesian practice, an example of the culture of promiscuity documented by Margaret Mead; these were cases of adult men assaulting girls as young as five, not preteens experimenting with each other. In no Polynesian culture is that normative. No, the girls were not consenting; often they emerged bloodied and with lifelong injuries, leaving one victim barren.
No, this was not a hidden practice by a few bad apples; almost every man participated, with even gang rapes committed in full public view. One mother in 1978 interrupted a meeting of the island council, waving the bloody panties of her 11-year-old daughter who had just been raped by one of the councilors, Brian Young; Young and his friends literally turned their backs and ignored her. Everyone knew what was going on. No, this was not a recent development. Pitcairn was founded by violent men who kidnapped Tahitian women (including young girls) and forced them to bear children to populate their new society. This has been going on all along.
Marks unravels other myths too. The mutineers put out an image of having created an idyllic society in the tropics. In reality, it unraveled nearly as soon as it was created. 15 men, nine British and six Tahitian, initially settled the island in 1790. The British's determination to keep all farmable land for themselves caused an outbreak of ethnic warfare, at the end of which only four Brits, and no Tahitian men, were left alive by the end of 1793. Of those four left, one figured out how to distill alcohol and drunkenly threw himself off a cliff, after which another was murdered by the other two for fear he was trying to steal their wives. The second-to-last died of asthma in 1800, leaving only one adult man, John Adams, on the island after a decade. It's hard to imagine how the settlement could have gone worse.
From the 1830s onward, Pitcairn has been a Crown possession, reliant on massive charity from the UK in the form of unprofitable visits by shipping trips and more direct subsidies in order to survive. By the time of Marks' writing in 2009, the Brits were spending $3.9 million a year on an island of 51 people, or $76,000 per capita. These are the biggest welfare queens in the whole world, and for years they were participants in a massive criminal conspiracy to abuse children. As part of their defense, they had the temerity to argue they actually weren't a Crown possession at all, and could not be subject to British law. They'd like to cash the checks and not be prosecuted, thank you kindly.
The bulk of the book is about Operation Unique, the unprecedented British-New Zealander investigation into the decades of sexual abuse occasioned by disclosures from victims in 1999. If you can stomach the subject matter, the result is a fascinating, up-close look at how police, prosecutors, and judges attempted a nearly impossible task: criminally trying most of the most powerful figures in a small community, in that community, using testimony from current and former members of that community, when that community feels (not without basis) that without the defendants they will all die.
Pitcairn lives by the kindness of the "longboat," actually a powerboat that has to navigate a treacherous route between the island and passing cargo ships to acquire all the goods the island needs to survive. The longboat was captained by community leaders like Steve Christian and Dave Brown — pedophiles and rapists under indictment for sundry assaults. Would the longboat die without them? (And because they refused to train others for the duty, perhaps sensing the value in making themselves indispensable and thus unaccountable?)
Ultimately many of the men are convicted, sentenced to community service, home confinement, or (in the worst cases) a few years in a jail they built themselves on the island. As Marks notes, it hardly looks like justice compared to UK or New Zealand practices, where sentences would be much longer and not served in a Pablo Escobar-esque prison the inmates control. But the herculean efforts needed to even get that far — just the logistics necessary to house and feed the judges, lawyers, and journalists who arrived for the trial — are remarkable all the same. It is not hard to understand why the British attitude had, for years, been one of neglect. It's a tiny place, where establishing the rule of law would be unbelievably difficult. Small wonder it took two hundred years for anyone to really try.
While not exactly easy to read, Marks' book is worth the effort if only for what it tells us about how societies operate, how a social contract is built and maintained. In philosophy classes, over readings of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls, one argues about situations like this one: people, on previously unoccupied land, not subject to external laws, setting up a government and rules from scratch. What do they do? What should they do? One lesson of Pitcairn is that while they can devolve into anarchy (as the original mutineers did), they needn't. A stable order can be created and maintained, based on reciprocity and mutual knowledge that cooperation is necessary to survive. Brian Skyrms' writing on the stag hunt comes to mind. But that same spirit of reciprocity and cooperation that prevents people from killing one another also can prevent them from subjecting each other to any constraints at all. The same survival need that makes society possible can make accountability impossible. What do we do with that realization?
July 17, 2022
Kathy Marks provides an incredibly in depth description and analysis of not only the child sexual abuse trials on Pitcairn Island, but the history, culture, and people that contributed to the Pitcairn myth of an idyllic island inhabited by mutineer's descendents who were living in a virtually crime free Christian community.
This kind of journalism is clearly essential, as the Pitcairn story of young girls being let down by their families/community, church, & govt and being forced to carry the trauma of their abuse on their own only to be ostracized and disbelieved when they came forward is an extreme example of the same stories that are so common throughout the world.
This kind of journalism is clearly essential, as the Pitcairn story of young girls being let down by their families/community, church, & govt and being forced to carry the trauma of their abuse on their own only to be ostracized and disbelieved when they came forward is an extreme example of the same stories that are so common throughout the world.
February 22, 2023
Very interesting report of the child abuse trials on Pitcairn and insight into daily life and history of the island. It gets a bit repetitive sometimes and I confused some of the people every now and then but they only have a few different surnames so I don't blame myself.
It's been 13 years since the book was published but according to photographer Rhiannon Adam who visited the island in 2015 not much has changed.
It's been 13 years since the book was published but according to photographer Rhiannon Adam who visited the island in 2015 not much has changed.
May 21, 2009
I had a hard time deciding whether to rate this book as three or four stars (because, you know, a lot depends on that...).
It's a pretty fascinating account of the uncovering of the secret sexual abuse (mainly of very young female children) in a very small isolated community. So, that said, it's hard to rate that "i liked it" or "i really liked it" about a story of child-rape, and the utterly, disturbingly bizarre reaction of the community (the abusers as persecuted heroes, the women as villains for exposing the community to outside interference).
I wasn't familiar with the mythology about Pitcairn Island. It's the island where the mutineers from the Mutiny on the Bounty settled with the Tahitian "wives" they kidnapped along the way. The population, at the time of the trials, was under 50 citizens. It is a British territory, but had long been left to its own devices, and basically lawless and celebrating, and largely making their living from, their (morally dubious) legacy.
The author draws some parallels to William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, and it I found it really disheartening to think that this is what human nature becomes when isolated--the strongest men in charge, and women and children used however those men see fit. A very ugly example of Darwinism at its lowest common denominator.
Possibly even more disturbing than the abuse are the lengths to which the community--even mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, fathers, brothers, etc--of the victims went to defend the rapists and ostracize the victims.
Even thinking about it now makes me feel sick to my stomach.
So, while I definitely didn't "really like" this story, I think having it exposed is important.
It's a pretty fascinating account of the uncovering of the secret sexual abuse (mainly of very young female children) in a very small isolated community. So, that said, it's hard to rate that "i liked it" or "i really liked it" about a story of child-rape, and the utterly, disturbingly bizarre reaction of the community (the abusers as persecuted heroes, the women as villains for exposing the community to outside interference).
I wasn't familiar with the mythology about Pitcairn Island. It's the island where the mutineers from the Mutiny on the Bounty settled with the Tahitian "wives" they kidnapped along the way. The population, at the time of the trials, was under 50 citizens. It is a British territory, but had long been left to its own devices, and basically lawless and celebrating, and largely making their living from, their (morally dubious) legacy.
The author draws some parallels to William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, and it I found it really disheartening to think that this is what human nature becomes when isolated--the strongest men in charge, and women and children used however those men see fit. A very ugly example of Darwinism at its lowest common denominator.
Possibly even more disturbing than the abuse are the lengths to which the community--even mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, fathers, brothers, etc--of the victims went to defend the rapists and ostracize the victims.
Even thinking about it now makes me feel sick to my stomach.
So, while I definitely didn't "really like" this story, I think having it exposed is important.
April 24, 2009
A detailed, horrifying and compulsively readable expose of the legacy of sexual abuse hiding behind Pitcairn Island's mystique. The author was one of the six reporters who was allowed to stay on the island and cover the rape trials of some of the society's most prominent men. The investigations barely scratched the surface; just about every girl who grew up on Pitcairn for the past several decades, and perhaps going back into the nineteenth century, was raped by one or more men or boys. The author does a good job explaining the uniqueness of Pitcairn society and how it allowed sex abuse to flourish almost openly for so long without any of the islanders taking steps to stop it. HIGHLY recommended.
November 26, 2017
Imagine an isolated island with 50-something habitants in which every single woman has been raped. Forgive me, it was not every single woman, it was every single girl: at twelve, you are considered "fair game" by 2/3 of the male population in your community. You wouldn't reach 14 without being raped. If you were unlucky, you would be raped before 10. It was not rare for girls as young as 3 to be sexually abused. With luck, you will only have one abuser during a couple of years. Without luck, you will get gangraped, or raped continually by 6 men throught the years. You could never get away from a possible abuser because your culture gives adults free access to children.
You couldn't count with anyone to help you. Your mother would be pissed about it for a couple of days, but after being ignored, she would let it go and dismiss it as "part of life" just as everyone else in the island. And if you're unlucky, as you get home dripped in mud, tears and blood after being violated, you will get scolded by your parents because you didn't do your house chores: the house chores you missed because you were busy doing "whatever" with your rapist. You could get raped again in a bedroom while your families dine in the next room. You could get raped by the mayor, while two of his friends hold you against a tree. Your rapist would fart in your face as a joke, and all your friends would laugh of you, for everyone remembers the day your mother embarassed everyone accusing your rapist in a public meeting. After that, your rapist would fish with your father.
Maybe an outsider would help? Well, the Adventist pastor would tell you that was your fault because you wore a pretty dress to church. (Yes, that actually happened.) The teacher was another abuser himself. Every single adult would tell you that you should keep it a secret, as not to get your rapist into trouble.
After a while, you would accept that being raped as a girl is just part of life in your community, and years later, when your own child will be inevitably abused, you will tell her exactly the same thing you heard after being raped yourself: don't get the rapist into trouble, it was your fault, just accept and let it go. And you would do that not just for custom, but also do stand up for your brother, your son, your father, your spouse, because you know they get their fun somewhere else in ways you prefer to ignore.
Or maybe you'd want to get away from your country. There is no regular boat schedule in your community, and since the longboats are operated by the well connected men, you would probably depend on a rapist to take you out. But maybe you would be blessed. Maybe you would reach in a different country, and rebuild your life. When an improbable set of events finally expose the rampant pedophilia in your small country, you might want to overcome your shame and misplaced guilt and talk to the police. But your family and old friends would condemn you for your "lies", call you a traitor and accuse you of collaborating in an evil British conspiracy to destroy your community. Your own mother, after being told your father is also accused of rape by another victim, urges you to stop collaborating with the police and "protect your family". You would get rejected by your immediate family.
You would show signs of psychological damage. You would regress to the state of a baby, you wouldn't even walk anymore. To the point you woulnd't even be able to testify in court during the trial that only happened because of your complaints.
Are you enraged enough?
Without one single drip of sensacionalism, Kathy Marks brilliantly tells in first person her journey to cover the rape trials in Pitcairn. She tells about how common and simple Pitcairn people seemed, and how evil is banal. Later, she rebuffs every fallacy used to defend Pitcairn pedophiles, even by people who are experienced in dealing with rape victims. At first, arriving in Pitcairn feels ominous. Then, as Kathy described all the victims testimonies in court, hearing the rapes being were recounted in details, I got so upset, I had to stop reading. Then the trials' became a joke, and I stopped reading again. It's that kind of book.
It is an interesting read for anyone who wants to understand how society can get used to evil. If you are a feminist, this is an obligatory book: every single aspect of rape culture is magnified in Pitcairn. It feels almost like reading about a social experiment. But beware: you will get enraged.
You couldn't count with anyone to help you. Your mother would be pissed about it for a couple of days, but after being ignored, she would let it go and dismiss it as "part of life" just as everyone else in the island. And if you're unlucky, as you get home dripped in mud, tears and blood after being violated, you will get scolded by your parents because you didn't do your house chores: the house chores you missed because you were busy doing "whatever" with your rapist. You could get raped again in a bedroom while your families dine in the next room. You could get raped by the mayor, while two of his friends hold you against a tree. Your rapist would fart in your face as a joke, and all your friends would laugh of you, for everyone remembers the day your mother embarassed everyone accusing your rapist in a public meeting. After that, your rapist would fish with your father.
Maybe an outsider would help? Well, the Adventist pastor would tell you that was your fault because you wore a pretty dress to church. (Yes, that actually happened.) The teacher was another abuser himself. Every single adult would tell you that you should keep it a secret, as not to get your rapist into trouble.
After a while, you would accept that being raped as a girl is just part of life in your community, and years later, when your own child will be inevitably abused, you will tell her exactly the same thing you heard after being raped yourself: don't get the rapist into trouble, it was your fault, just accept and let it go. And you would do that not just for custom, but also do stand up for your brother, your son, your father, your spouse, because you know they get their fun somewhere else in ways you prefer to ignore.
Or maybe you'd want to get away from your country. There is no regular boat schedule in your community, and since the longboats are operated by the well connected men, you would probably depend on a rapist to take you out. But maybe you would be blessed. Maybe you would reach in a different country, and rebuild your life. When an improbable set of events finally expose the rampant pedophilia in your small country, you might want to overcome your shame and misplaced guilt and talk to the police. But your family and old friends would condemn you for your "lies", call you a traitor and accuse you of collaborating in an evil British conspiracy to destroy your community. Your own mother, after being told your father is also accused of rape by another victim, urges you to stop collaborating with the police and "protect your family". You would get rejected by your immediate family.
You would show signs of psychological damage. You would regress to the state of a baby, you wouldn't even walk anymore. To the point you woulnd't even be able to testify in court during the trial that only happened because of your complaints.
Are you enraged enough?
Without one single drip of sensacionalism, Kathy Marks brilliantly tells in first person her journey to cover the rape trials in Pitcairn. She tells about how common and simple Pitcairn people seemed, and how evil is banal. Later, she rebuffs every fallacy used to defend Pitcairn pedophiles, even by people who are experienced in dealing with rape victims. At first, arriving in Pitcairn feels ominous. Then, as Kathy described all the victims testimonies in court, hearing the rapes being were recounted in details, I got so upset, I had to stop reading. Then the trials' became a joke, and I stopped reading again. It's that kind of book.
It is an interesting read for anyone who wants to understand how society can get used to evil. If you are a feminist, this is an obligatory book: every single aspect of rape culture is magnified in Pitcairn. It feels almost like reading about a social experiment. But beware: you will get enraged.
May 16, 2009
I picked up this book after hearing the author on NPR.
This is a fascinating, gripping, book. It delves into the facts of what happened in Pitcairn, as well as exploring some of the possible influences (or lack of influences) that may have contributed to the state of the island, without going overboard on any kind of psychology or sociology.
Recommended, recommended, recommended.
This is a fascinating, gripping, book. It delves into the facts of what happened in Pitcairn, as well as exploring some of the possible influences (or lack of influences) that may have contributed to the state of the island, without going overboard on any kind of psychology or sociology.
Recommended, recommended, recommended.
Read
August 1, 2016I don't even know what to rate this book. It's been a while since I read it. But I do remember feel angry on the face of the facts the Marks so pointedly presents. Few books have stirred such strong emotions in me.
January 23, 2016
Horrific true story of the lives of the women of Pitcairn Island, descended from kidnapped Polynesians and the men they were forced to marry, the mutineers of the "Bounty."
December 19, 2025
I stumbled upon the story of Pitcairn Island through a YouTube video, and got so swept up in the intrigue that I read this whole book! Pitcairn Island is an island out in the South Pacific that is home to one of the most insular and isolated communities in the world. Founded by a group of mutineer sailors and the Tahitian people they kidnapped, the island has a deeply entrenched culture of sexually abusing children that goes back basically to its founding. In 1999, a girl spoke out and was finally heard by authorities that she had been raped as a child. This led to an investigation which found that nearly every man on the island had committed rape or sexual abuse, and nearly every female child on the island had been a victim. Author Kathy Marks was one of six journalists allowed on the island during the expensive and unprecedented trials. She wrote this book covering the trials, the island’s lore and image as a Christian paradise, unscathed by the flaws of society, and the people and their interconnected lives.
I learned a lot and was fascinated by the first half of the book. The descriptions of power on the island, how a small group of loud men from “good” families run everything and are used to getting their way, really rips apart any ideals that might be imagined about the place. The stories of rape and abuse are terrible and devastating to read. Even worse is the ending of the story: a few of the men went to “prison”, but it was basically a hotel on the island where they were released every day to do work around the island and their families came and visited all the time. None were there for more than a couple of years, and all have returned to positions of power and respect in the community. The British government invested more than $15 million in improvements to the island to try to draw in more outsiders to change the culture, and now they have a permanent government presence. It seems very possible that the cycle of sexual abuse continues to this day.
The second half of the book had poor pacing and went on for too long, exploring the myth of the island and the people around the world who support it, the theory that Tahitian culture made young women more promiscuous, the economic investments in the island, the legal challenge that the island is not actually British, and so on and so on.
The author advocated for women and tried to tell their stories from firsthand accounts to demonstrate the horror of what happened to them as children. But she totally lost my trust after this passage:
“By most accounts, the girls were forward, and maybe it was, as some have suggested, to do with their Tahitian ancestry, or the tropical heat. However, in the light of what is known now about Pitcairn, it seems probable that more sinister factors were at play.”
WOW KATHY, way to ruin your entire book in a sentence. These girls were abused from ages 3-12 and you’re suggesting that it’s merely “probable” that it’s not their fault?? If this book were written today, I should hope the story would be told differently.
Anyway, I think I’m done with my deep dive into Pitcairn and I don’t believe they have fixed their society at all since this was written.
I learned a lot and was fascinated by the first half of the book. The descriptions of power on the island, how a small group of loud men from “good” families run everything and are used to getting their way, really rips apart any ideals that might be imagined about the place. The stories of rape and abuse are terrible and devastating to read. Even worse is the ending of the story: a few of the men went to “prison”, but it was basically a hotel on the island where they were released every day to do work around the island and their families came and visited all the time. None were there for more than a couple of years, and all have returned to positions of power and respect in the community. The British government invested more than $15 million in improvements to the island to try to draw in more outsiders to change the culture, and now they have a permanent government presence. It seems very possible that the cycle of sexual abuse continues to this day.
The second half of the book had poor pacing and went on for too long, exploring the myth of the island and the people around the world who support it, the theory that Tahitian culture made young women more promiscuous, the economic investments in the island, the legal challenge that the island is not actually British, and so on and so on.
The author advocated for women and tried to tell their stories from firsthand accounts to demonstrate the horror of what happened to them as children. But she totally lost my trust after this passage:
“By most accounts, the girls were forward, and maybe it was, as some have suggested, to do with their Tahitian ancestry, or the tropical heat. However, in the light of what is known now about Pitcairn, it seems probable that more sinister factors were at play.”
WOW KATHY, way to ruin your entire book in a sentence. These girls were abused from ages 3-12 and you’re suggesting that it’s merely “probable” that it’s not their fault?? If this book were written today, I should hope the story would be told differently.
Anyway, I think I’m done with my deep dive into Pitcairn and I don’t believe they have fixed their society at all since this was written.
August 8, 2020
A while ago, I was looking at Pitcairn Island's website, and noticed one of the FAQs was "Is Pitcairn safe for children?". The answer assured that yes, there's now a system in place to protect children (up in the air whether that's really true even now), but the mere presence of the question had me wondering what on earth had happened, and that led me to this book.
This book is a riveting, harrowing account of the web of abuse on Pitcairn Island. The island is a tiny, brutally isolated British colony of only 50 people, descended from the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitian women they kidnapped. In the early 2000s, a horrifying level of sexual abuse of minors was exposed on the island, leading to an unprecedented trial. The author, Kathy Marks, was one of only six journalists permitted to be on the island for the trial. The first part of the book chronicles her time on the island, and the second part reflects on the history and legend of the island, and the multiple levels of governmental and societal failure that led to what was probably 100+ years of continued abuse.
Marks does a phenomenal job of bringing the reader into the claustrophic, unsettled world of Pitcairn. The sense of isolation from the rest of the world permeates everything about Pitcairn, and the first half of the book intensely conveys how hard it would be to change the society or, for the poor girls who were abused, how impossible it would be to speak up. And yet some girls did speak up, bravely, and Marks really shows how many consequences they faced but how much strength they showed in the face of being cut off from their families and the world they knew.
The second part of the book does an excellent job of interweaving the history of the island, the brutal violence present at the very beginning, the legend of the Bounty and how it's grown, the involvement of the Seventh Day Adventist church, the toxic masculinity in Pitcairn society, and the incredible failure of the British government to oversee this strange little colony of mutineers and protect the children living there. Marks pulls all of these threads together to tell a thorough, brutal story of how a society can fail to protect its children.
This book is a riveting, harrowing account of the web of abuse on Pitcairn Island. The island is a tiny, brutally isolated British colony of only 50 people, descended from the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitian women they kidnapped. In the early 2000s, a horrifying level of sexual abuse of minors was exposed on the island, leading to an unprecedented trial. The author, Kathy Marks, was one of only six journalists permitted to be on the island for the trial. The first part of the book chronicles her time on the island, and the second part reflects on the history and legend of the island, and the multiple levels of governmental and societal failure that led to what was probably 100+ years of continued abuse.
Marks does a phenomenal job of bringing the reader into the claustrophic, unsettled world of Pitcairn. The sense of isolation from the rest of the world permeates everything about Pitcairn, and the first half of the book intensely conveys how hard it would be to change the society or, for the poor girls who were abused, how impossible it would be to speak up. And yet some girls did speak up, bravely, and Marks really shows how many consequences they faced but how much strength they showed in the face of being cut off from their families and the world they knew.
The second part of the book does an excellent job of interweaving the history of the island, the brutal violence present at the very beginning, the legend of the Bounty and how it's grown, the involvement of the Seventh Day Adventist church, the toxic masculinity in Pitcairn society, and the incredible failure of the British government to oversee this strange little colony of mutineers and protect the children living there. Marks pulls all of these threads together to tell a thorough, brutal story of how a society can fail to protect its children.
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November 21, 2019The evil that men do.
i read this book when once upon a time whilst in prison. (for traffic offenses). couldn't put it down.
it spells so much more than the subject itself.
its a bit like if you look at a trouble in a large data of population,
and wonder how to implement a sort for it....instead of thinking 1 million, try solve it with 100.
As abhorrent as it seems, and the reading was difficult to calculate bearing in mind where i was at the time of reading (wasnt at the beach sunbathing) was in a concrete jungle cohabiting with murderers, rapists, thieves and idiots alike...when u read a good book, you like to talk about it etc...wasnt going to do that there to avoid the inevitable.
Wonder what did life do when living on a lovely island in the middle of the ocean 750 years ago...? Wouldn't have thought "ah fuk we all stuck out here in middle of now where"....we need some help....
If you got 10 people together ...im sure 90% of them are with the each of quirks, but with the clean of heart and mind...other 10%......well..there always gonna be a bit darkness where there is light.
Was 10 years ago since i read the book and what sticks in mind is the emotion of the right to decency, privacy and safety.
What ever really happened there, those people, the men, should've kept the young safe and they weren't as such stuck out on a desert island not knowing shiet about the real world.
They should've been incarcerated elsewhere. and that system would've taught them really what is right and wrong.
to the author ...that must've been one hell of a journey...one of the best written books iv ever read.
really highlights where right and wrong belongs.
i read this book when once upon a time whilst in prison. (for traffic offenses). couldn't put it down.
it spells so much more than the subject itself.
its a bit like if you look at a trouble in a large data of population,
and wonder how to implement a sort for it....instead of thinking 1 million, try solve it with 100.
As abhorrent as it seems, and the reading was difficult to calculate bearing in mind where i was at the time of reading (wasnt at the beach sunbathing) was in a concrete jungle cohabiting with murderers, rapists, thieves and idiots alike...when u read a good book, you like to talk about it etc...wasnt going to do that there to avoid the inevitable.
Wonder what did life do when living on a lovely island in the middle of the ocean 750 years ago...? Wouldn't have thought "ah fuk we all stuck out here in middle of now where"....we need some help....
If you got 10 people together ...im sure 90% of them are with the each of quirks, but with the clean of heart and mind...other 10%......well..there always gonna be a bit darkness where there is light.
Was 10 years ago since i read the book and what sticks in mind is the emotion of the right to decency, privacy and safety.
What ever really happened there, those people, the men, should've kept the young safe and they weren't as such stuck out on a desert island not knowing shiet about the real world.
They should've been incarcerated elsewhere. and that system would've taught them really what is right and wrong.
to the author ...that must've been one hell of a journey...one of the best written books iv ever read.
really highlights where right and wrong belongs.
April 29, 2022
Welcome to one of the craziest places on earth. In 1789, mutineers led by Fletcher Christian on a British ship named the Bounty sent their captain, William Bligh, on a small boat with the rest of the crew out into the ocean to fend for themselves. Two absolutely insane things then happened. Bligh captained his open boat and the survivors 4,000 damn miles to safety. Let that sink in. Yes, pun intended.
The second crazy thing? Christian and 8 other mutineers (after a bunch of kidnapping and murder, long story) ended up settling on Pitcairn Island with a bunch of kidnapped indigenous people. Good news though, almost all of the mutineers ended up killing each other so all is well that ends well, right? I will not point out the irony of the main psycho being named Christian. Oh, I guess I did.
Nope. Lost Paradise focuses on what happens when a society is left to its own devices with no oversight. Might be hard to be a libertarian after reading this. The people on Pitcairn currently come from four families dating back to the mutineers. In 2004, a trial was held due to the repeated sexual assaults on the island which were treated for years with a collective shrug. It wasn’t until the British government decided to actually do something that trials were held. Don’t hold out for a happy ending.
The second crazy thing? Christian and 8 other mutineers (after a bunch of kidnapping and murder, long story) ended up settling on Pitcairn Island with a bunch of kidnapped indigenous people. Good news though, almost all of the mutineers ended up killing each other so all is well that ends well, right? I will not point out the irony of the main psycho being named Christian. Oh, I guess I did.
Nope. Lost Paradise focuses on what happens when a society is left to its own devices with no oversight. Might be hard to be a libertarian after reading this. The people on Pitcairn currently come from four families dating back to the mutineers. In 2004, a trial was held due to the repeated sexual assaults on the island which were treated for years with a collective shrug. It wasn’t until the British government decided to actually do something that trials were held. Don’t hold out for a happy ending.
August 1, 2024
Phenomenal book. Tells the story of Pitcairn island, which is a real island with only 50 people on it 1000+ miles away from any other land in every direction - the most isolated populated island in the world. On top of that they’re all descendants of a single ship’s crew + their Polynesian “wives” - the HMS Bounty shipwreck / mutiny - from circa 1800, which is nuts. Anywho this island which was beloved by travel enthusiasts / religious nuts be groaning the evils of modern society / ppl who like stamps (their whole economy was selling rare stamps with Pitcairn on it until like a few years ago????????) turned out to be a bit of a hell hole, as one woman came forward after moving to New Zealand and reported she’d be sexually assaulted as a teen. They did some very, very, very minor investigation to find out that pretty much everyone woman on the island going back to the 60s had been assaulted. This is the backdrop of the book, and the story follows how the women of the island contend with their assaults, the British government contends with how to dole out justice in its “colony” which takes a week to get to and doesn’t even have a cop, and the islanders contend with how to give criminals what they deserve while also ensuring that their tiny island continues to survive. Nuts story, highly recommend.
December 7, 2021
89🇵🇳 PITCAIRN ISLAND 🇵🇳This book picks up where Dea Birkett’s book left off. Almost a year after Birkett left Pitcairn, the young daughter of the Seventh Day Adventist pastor blew the lid off the shocking endemic of child sex abuse that islanders had been involved in and explicit in for decades. I am left deeply saddened and disturbed by the horrific accounts of the abused, and more so by those who should have known better who attempted to defend or rationalise, excuse and downright enabled the actions of the pedophiles. Marks’ writing is thoroughly enthralling. I did not miss a single word. But oh how my heart breaks for the victims, now women, who are still tormented by the actions of their families, and for whom justice was never truly served. If there was ever a case to relocate and disrupt this dysfunctional society, this is it. Pitcairn you are a disgrace. #🌏📚#readingworldtour2021 #readtheworld2 #worldliterature #readingworldliterature #reading #readingwomenchallenge #readersofinstagram #readmorebooks #bookstagram #booklover #book #booknerd #bibliophile #travel #travelogue #fiction #nonfiction #nonfictionreads #travelbooks #ayearofreadingaroundtheworld #pitcairnisland #pitcairn
October 30, 2023
Well-researched and pretty much well-written as well, but it is an extremely disturbing and disgusting set of events to read about. It made me super pissed off, not just at the accused but at the culture of misogyny (and racism) that made sure violence never took place between men (where it could cause problems for the community) but only where it could be "safely" placed - on ALL of the female children, on the adult females and, probably, on male children as well. And when I say children you do not want to know how low that number goes as far as the age of the abused. It is very hard to read. And this is coming from someone who regularly reads and watches thrillers and horrors and none of them has scared me like this book did.
Sadly, it didn't leave me very hopeful that the culture will have changed given the ferocity with which the perpetrators and the behavior were defended (or at times, hypocritically, denied) by most other inhabitants.
The point is, never think of Pitcairn Island as a romantic sun-soaked South Pacific palm-tree lined place with a quirky history of mutineers from a centuries old ship. It is aptly compared in may ways to Lord of the Flies, in real life.
Sadly, it didn't leave me very hopeful that the culture will have changed given the ferocity with which the perpetrators and the behavior were defended (or at times, hypocritically, denied) by most other inhabitants.
The point is, never think of Pitcairn Island as a romantic sun-soaked South Pacific palm-tree lined place with a quirky history of mutineers from a centuries old ship. It is aptly compared in may ways to Lord of the Flies, in real life.
March 23, 2018
More like 3.5.
The story of Pitcairn is, in some ways, incredibly fascinating (imagine having to import an entire judicial system to a remote island for one trial because the island's magistrate is among the accused) and yet also depressingly familiar (). What really struck me was that only one of the men expressed remorse to one of his victims, and none of the others cared or even saw anything wrong with what they were doing. Why are men like this? Why does society allow them to get away with it? Why do we rally around these men to protect them from having their lives "ruined," while shunning the women whose lives are already ruined? Because it's not just a Pitcairn problem.
The story of Pitcairn is, in some ways, incredibly fascinating (imagine having to import an entire judicial system to a remote island for one trial because the island's magistrate is among the accused) and yet also depressingly familiar (). What really struck me was that only one of the men expressed remorse to one of his victims, and none of the others cared or even saw anything wrong with what they were doing. Why are men like this? Why does society allow them to get away with it? Why do we rally around these men to protect them from having their lives "ruined," while shunning the women whose lives are already ruined? Because it's not just a Pitcairn problem.
April 3, 2024
When I picked up the cover I wasn’t entirely sure what the story was about. To be honest I didn’t realise it was non fiction until I started reading it, and the tale just seemed to get more incredulous as I read. The stories about what happened on the island were astounding, but also to read about the reactions of people at the time and on the island were, though being able to follow with logic, without emotion, although maybe it was also too much emotion that made people act like that. I don’t usually pick up non fiction in this form, but it was written and accounted in a way that I feel like I was going through the trial and seeing what Marks was seeing. And I truely hope things have got better for the victims since then.
October 4, 2025
Everything about this story is nuts. From the island’s origin story to the horrifying secret that is uncovered and the chaos that follows. Watching how the first trial in over a century was carried out on the world’s most remote inhabited island is fascinating. There's then the surreal details: defendants building the prison they’d soon be locked inside, residents treating child rape as just another fact of life, and victims forced into an impossible choice: pursue justice and be exiled from your community and family or stay silent and let the abusers walk free.
It's a gripping story. The book gets a little convoluted in the latter half. But overall, something I took a lot away from.
It's a gripping story. The book gets a little convoluted in the latter half. But overall, something I took a lot away from.
April 9, 2018
This is a difficult book to read. It was well written by a trained journalist who became embedded in the story when she was selected (by a lottery) to travel to Pitcairn Island to report on the sex abuse trials. She retells the testimony of the women who were abused and gang raped from a very young age. As she explores further we learn that every adult male on the island, back probably to the first settlement of the island, has participated in what they see as their right to "de flower" the girls when they reach puberty or even earlier.
April 29, 2020
This book was a fascinating and shocking look at one of the most secluded societies on Earth, the people of Pitcairn Island. Since the author was one of the few journalists chosen to cover the sexual assault trials on the island she provides great detail about both the trial itself and her observations of each of the islanders and their interactions. It can be pretty hard to read in some places, especially considering the depth of research that has gone into the crimes committed. That said, it’s a riveting account of a place so different from anything we are accustomed to.
December 12, 2021
Having read "The Trilogy" multiple times and having an adventurous spirit, from time to time I wondered what it would be like to visit Pitcairn Island—home of the descendants of the Bounty mutiny.
Marks saved me a lot of time and money—and now I don't have to wonder or to go.
I did contact the author to inquire whether she knew the current (2021) state of affairs on Pitcairn. Marks responded that she knew nothing. So, apparently, the veil has again descended upon the rock.
Marks saved me a lot of time and money—and now I don't have to wonder or to go.
I did contact the author to inquire whether she knew the current (2021) state of affairs on Pitcairn. Marks responded that she knew nothing. So, apparently, the veil has again descended upon the rock.
August 16, 2024
Sorry Alex! 3.5 for me. I wanted to like this and really respect the author’s multi year effort to conduct thorough reporting on an issue that needed to be seen. However, I felt like the storytelling was all over the place in the book and it got quite repetitive by the end. It was neat hearing her own experience on the island and the following few years after the case, but I can’t say I would recommend this.
November 15, 2024
Amazing story with lots of turns
I I wanted to read this story for a long time. It is incredibly interesting and thought-provoking. It is a great book club read. However I found that the story almost never ended. The 1st part of the book got my attention but it kept going on and on.
I I wanted to read this story for a long time. It is incredibly interesting and thought-provoking. It is a great book club read. However I found that the story almost never ended. The 1st part of the book got my attention but it kept going on and on.
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