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The Last Lighthouse Keeper: A Memoir
A beautiful memoir from John Cook, one of Tasmania's last kerosene lighthouse keepers. A story about madness and wilderness, shining a light onto the vicissitudes of love and nature.
'John Cook's ripping life story exposes Tasmania's old kero-fuelled lighthouses: relentless physically and emotionally demanding labour, done under the often cruel vagaries of nature. Noble work that can ultimately redeem a lost soul. Or break them.' - Matthew Evans
I loved the life of the island, because I knew my body was more alive than it was on the mainland. People asked how we stood the isolation and boredom, but in some ways, it was more stimulating to have your senses turned up.
In Tasmania, John Cook is known as 'The Keeper of the Flame'. As one of Australia's longest-serving lighthouse keepers, John spent 26 years tending Tasmania's well-known kerosene 'lights' at Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island.
From sleepless nights keeping the lights alive, battling the wind and sea as they ripped at gutters and flooded stores, raising a joey, tending sheep and keeping ducks and chickens, the life of a keeper was one of unexpected joy and heartbreak. But for John, nothing was more heartbreaking than the introduction of electric lights, and the lighthouses that were left empty forever.
Evocatively told, The Last Lighthouse Keeper is a love story between a man and a dying way of life, as well as a celebration of wilderness and solitude.
'John Cook's ripping life story exposes Tasmania's old kero-fuelled lighthouses: relentless physically and emotionally demanding labour, done under the often cruel vagaries of nature. Noble work that can ultimately redeem a lost soul. Or break them.' - Matthew Evans
I loved the life of the island, because I knew my body was more alive than it was on the mainland. People asked how we stood the isolation and boredom, but in some ways, it was more stimulating to have your senses turned up.
In Tasmania, John Cook is known as 'The Keeper of the Flame'. As one of Australia's longest-serving lighthouse keepers, John spent 26 years tending Tasmania's well-known kerosene 'lights' at Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island.
From sleepless nights keeping the lights alive, battling the wind and sea as they ripped at gutters and flooded stores, raising a joey, tending sheep and keeping ducks and chickens, the life of a keeper was one of unexpected joy and heartbreak. But for John, nothing was more heartbreaking than the introduction of electric lights, and the lighthouses that were left empty forever.
Evocatively told, The Last Lighthouse Keeper is a love story between a man and a dying way of life, as well as a celebration of wilderness and solitude.
320 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2020
23 people are currently reading
293 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
November 9, 2020
I finished with empathy for John Cook’s loved ones but very little feeling for him. This was a strange exercise in public flagellation for poor choices but the descriptive sections of the lighthouses and their environs were good. Very readable but a bit short in the satisfaction stakes.
August 22, 2020
Somewhat biased, my Great Grandfather was the first light house keeper on Maatsuyker Island and was there for 5 years, and I was fortunate enough to visit a couple of years ago. The narrative is very accurate, and enjoyed the dialogue on what it was like. It made me appreciate what my great grandparents would have endured on 1890’S .
December 26, 2020
2 1/2 stars, and that's only because the passages about the natural environment were so well-described. Overall I was disappointed, as I expected more about the living environment and work associated with being a lighthouse keeper, and less about his poor life choices and regrets
September 5, 2020
This is a gloomy, unhappy tale of one man's struggle with his head. No light at the end of the tunnel.
December 9, 2020
The most mind numbing dribble I've ever read. I had such high hopes for this book. I was hoping for history, knowledge of a lost art, learning what life was like in such a unique environment. Instead we get a guy who screws some chick, screams constantly for his kids , and punishes you with his never ending self flagellation and pity. Urgh. Don't bother.
July 25, 2020
I am really glad that John Cook has captured his life as a lighthouse keeper across Tasmania in this memoir. Not only are the places (and weather) unique, beautiful, and terrifying, but he also shares a deeply personal story. The loss of his way of life is even more telling and draws parallels to our current world where we are all suffering through a pandemic at the hands of technology and our collective behaviour (e.g., international travel en masse, overuse of natural resources, disregard for the environment).
I will think about this book for a long time and hopefully get to visit each of his lighthouses one day.
I will think about this book for a long time and hopefully get to visit each of his lighthouses one day.
August 31, 2020
The Last Lighthouse Keeper is a brilliant and epic memoir set on Tasmania's eastern and southern coasts telling the tale of John Cook's life as a lighthouse keeper.
John Cook spent 26 years tending Tasmania's well-known kerosene 'lights' at Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island.
This is John Cook's memoir and story brilliantly told by 'ghostwriter' John Bauer.
I really enjoyed reading this memoir and hearing all about the bird species and wildlife found on these somewhat remote islands of Tasmania.
A Lighthouse Keeper's life can be a lonely and desolate one but it's a life you choose.
If you love sea and lighthouse stories ~ you are going to love this one.
John Cook spent 26 years tending Tasmania's well-known kerosene 'lights' at Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island.
This is John Cook's memoir and story brilliantly told by 'ghostwriter' John Bauer.
I really enjoyed reading this memoir and hearing all about the bird species and wildlife found on these somewhat remote islands of Tasmania.
A Lighthouse Keeper's life can be a lonely and desolate one but it's a life you choose.
If you love sea and lighthouse stories ~ you are going to love this one.
October 11, 2020
I read this book with great interest because John Cook was the head light keeper on Maatsuyker when I lived there for a short time when I was 9 or 10 years old. Like John I loved the island and it had a huge impact on my life. I also lived on Tasman Island for a couple of years with my family.
My memories of John are clouded by a particularly traumatic experience when his Doberman Pincer bit me on 2 separate occasions. I still have scars on my wrist from the second attack and a fear of large dogs. We left the Maatsuyker island not long after the biting incident when the situation became untenable. This story made me realise that there was another side to John. A great lighthouse tale.
My memories of John are clouded by a particularly traumatic experience when his Doberman Pincer bit me on 2 separate occasions. I still have scars on my wrist from the second attack and a fear of large dogs. We left the Maatsuyker island not long after the biting incident when the situation became untenable. This story made me realise that there was another side to John. A great lighthouse tale.
January 28, 2023
This bio reads like a train wreck. You can smell what is coming and you are saying “Don’t go there!”, but it does anyway. After reading this book, if an old lighthouse keeper (as in smeller of mercury and kerosene vapor) was walking toward me, I would cross the road to avoid him. They are rendered all as mad as cut snakes. In short, educational (particularly as a Tasmanian) but depressing. There are close parallels with Antarctic over-wintering communities, of which I have some knowledge of.
May 6, 2021
The author was one of the last lighthouse keepers employed in Tasmania up to and during the time the lighthouses were electrified.
His stories cover the 1970s on the remote islands off Tassie were very interesting as the workers and their families battle the weather, themselves and the poor living conditions. But mostly the book is about the author's mental condition, his poor decisions and the impact these had on his love ones.
I did have to shake my head when he looked liked being sacked because he was living in sin and not married as he needed to be to get the job, while his fellow workmate was clearly approaching alcoholism and probable mental illness which no one thought it would affect his employment. The signs of the times.
His stories cover the 1970s on the remote islands off Tassie were very interesting as the workers and their families battle the weather, themselves and the poor living conditions. But mostly the book is about the author's mental condition, his poor decisions and the impact these had on his love ones.
I did have to shake my head when he looked liked being sacked because he was living in sin and not married as he needed to be to get the job, while his fellow workmate was clearly approaching alcoholism and probable mental illness which no one thought it would affect his employment. The signs of the times.
November 24, 2020
I found the idea of remote living on Tasman and then Maatsuyker Island off the southern coast of Tasmania very intriguing, and the descriptions of the landscape and wildlife were evocative. I felt seasick just reading about the docking of the launch boat and the winching up of Cook and his wife in a small basket suspended from a flying fox above the cliff face. Despite this, I felt the book a little self-indulgent, and Cook focuses a lot on the grief of leaving his children. I would have liked to have found read Deb's perspective.
December 16, 2020
I loved this book, but found it in equal parts both fascinating and painful. It ticked a lot of boxes for me. I love lighthouses, but rarely have an opportunity to read about Australian lighthouses, and if I do, it is generally a fairly dry account from the 19th century. This is definitely not that. I also love accounts of wildlife - birds, seals, whales, etc. What I was not expecting, though, was the troubled personal life of the protagonist, John Cook, that, if anything, overshadowed the lighthouses themselves. Would John ever see his children again? Would his second marriage survive? Would he ever learn how his father died?
The level of detail is extraordinary, given that it relates to events that took place so long ago (1960s and 70s). Did he keep a daily journal? It also must be said that the book does move very slowly at times, with a fair amount of repetition of similarly painful details. At 339 pages, it is quite long for a book of this type, and I felt it could have been edited down to a length closer to 250 pages. The book is co-written with Jon Bauer, and I found myself wondering how much was written by John, and how much by Jon. I also felt the quality of the editing trailed off a little at the end, with some terms and events introduced with inadequate explanations. (What, for example, is a Stevenson screen?)
John is a frustrating character in many ways. He makes poor decisions, then tries to correct the situation with even poorer ones. No doubt his difficult childhood, which he talks about a little, though not extensively, is a contributing factor. While I might question his emotional courage at times, I could never question his physical courage.
The southern coastline of Tasmania has always been something of a blank to me. it is great to now have a picture in my head of some of its islands - Tasman, Maatsuyker, and Bruny. The accounts of fishermen shooting seals - dovetailing with the arrival of Greenpeace - also made for very interesting reading.
At the end of the day, one can't help asking the question: Why was the book written? It reads as a public confessional, which makes me feel uncomfortable. I don't feel John Cook should feel guilty about the life he has lead, and I do wonder about the wisdom of sharing it with the world in such an honest, raw, open way. Having said that, I found the book a great read and, if a good number of other readers felt the same way, perhaps that is reason enough.
The level of detail is extraordinary, given that it relates to events that took place so long ago (1960s and 70s). Did he keep a daily journal? It also must be said that the book does move very slowly at times, with a fair amount of repetition of similarly painful details. At 339 pages, it is quite long for a book of this type, and I felt it could have been edited down to a length closer to 250 pages. The book is co-written with Jon Bauer, and I found myself wondering how much was written by John, and how much by Jon. I also felt the quality of the editing trailed off a little at the end, with some terms and events introduced with inadequate explanations. (What, for example, is a Stevenson screen?)
John is a frustrating character in many ways. He makes poor decisions, then tries to correct the situation with even poorer ones. No doubt his difficult childhood, which he talks about a little, though not extensively, is a contributing factor. While I might question his emotional courage at times, I could never question his physical courage.
The southern coastline of Tasmania has always been something of a blank to me. it is great to now have a picture in my head of some of its islands - Tasman, Maatsuyker, and Bruny. The accounts of fishermen shooting seals - dovetailing with the arrival of Greenpeace - also made for very interesting reading.
At the end of the day, one can't help asking the question: Why was the book written? It reads as a public confessional, which makes me feel uncomfortable. I don't feel John Cook should feel guilty about the life he has lead, and I do wonder about the wisdom of sharing it with the world in such an honest, raw, open way. Having said that, I found the book a great read and, if a good number of other readers felt the same way, perhaps that is reason enough.
July 6, 2021
I found this memoir an enthralling read. Who wants to read a technical book about the facts and figures of a lighthouse? The book cover was so beautiful I had to peep inside and very quickly I was under its spell. The writing evocative and poetic.
It was the human story behind lighthouse keepers that brought the Tasman & Maatsuyker lights to life.
John Cook wasn’t the first man to make the wrong choices but his salvation was the solace he found from the sea, nature and his animals that helped him towards a calmer life.
This book is raw - there has always been romantic escapism about life on a wind swept rock, maintaining a majestic lighthouse- but automation came.
I thoroughly recommend this book - you will still be under its spell as you close the covers.
It was the human story behind lighthouse keepers that brought the Tasman & Maatsuyker lights to life.
John Cook wasn’t the first man to make the wrong choices but his salvation was the solace he found from the sea, nature and his animals that helped him towards a calmer life.
This book is raw - there has always been romantic escapism about life on a wind swept rock, maintaining a majestic lighthouse- but automation came.
I thoroughly recommend this book - you will still be under its spell as you close the covers.
May 10, 2021
Oh dear. The title is such a misnomer. Not really about lighthouses at all. Just a weird fictionalised ? tale of his poor choices and selfish behaviour in life. And then it just ends! No ending no resolution. We don’t find out what happens to his children or his wife or his life! Very annoying. And in the end very boring. I did expect more about what it was like to live in and run lighthouses. I mean is he planning to write a sequel? Because why would you just finish the book without any ending? I have read reviews by people who had worked on or met some of the lighthouse keepers and they said they did not sense this friction that he mentions at all.
March 13, 2021
The Last Lighthouse Keeper, while buoyed by the descriptions of place and the emotions of solitude, was ultimately sunk by the endless regrets and despondence of an unfulfilled life. The story had the feel of a lengthy apology note that should have been too personal for general viewing, and, at the end, lacked any redemption.
December 11, 2021
I stopped reading it early on. It was far to grim and upsetting. My parents and grandparents were lighthouse keepers, and I don't want to pollute my memory of thier time with dark this Tasmanian story.
I suppose its ok - but not for me.
I suppose its ok - but not for me.
March 27, 2022
Some good explanations of the workings and experience of living on the most remote of islands.
Does take away some of the romantic notion of how life would be; there is a funny line in the book where he writes that lighthouses are about as romantic as a shark!
Does take away some of the romantic notion of how life would be; there is a funny line in the book where he writes that lighthouses are about as romantic as a shark!
August 22, 2023
I guess I'm one of those people John refers to who has romantic notions about lighthouses. There is something about them that I just love but this memoir made me realize what I guess I already knew. It was a brutally tough existence. Great story.
November 23, 2020
I bought this book the other day for two reasons.
The first because my grandfather worked as a 'stocktaker??' On the lights in Tasmania in the 60s/70s. Lighthouses have become a family symbol. A sign of his memory. I've always been drawn to them.
Secondly because 6 months ago I lost my job on Maria Island and when reading the blurb I knew I would find words and sentences that would reflect on the momentous loss I am trying to deal with. I found comfort in reading feelings I sometimes struggle to articulate.
I know what it feels like to love an island and a job tied up in one more than anything else. I truly felt this book.
Thank you John for sharing your story. The politics, logistics, nature, hard work, isolation.... all of it. I enjoyed reading this very much.
The first because my grandfather worked as a 'stocktaker??' On the lights in Tasmania in the 60s/70s. Lighthouses have become a family symbol. A sign of his memory. I've always been drawn to them.
Secondly because 6 months ago I lost my job on Maria Island and when reading the blurb I knew I would find words and sentences that would reflect on the momentous loss I am trying to deal with. I found comfort in reading feelings I sometimes struggle to articulate.
I know what it feels like to love an island and a job tied up in one more than anything else. I truly felt this book.
Thank you John for sharing your story. The politics, logistics, nature, hard work, isolation.... all of it. I enjoyed reading this very much.
October 2, 2020
An excellent read. This work recounts the life and work of one of the last keepers of lighthouses when they were powered by kerosene, and a clock work mechanism. These brave men (and their wives) had to deal with storms, sleepless nights, 7 day a week work, and isolation. Cook describes his life frankly. This book was hard to put down.
June 9, 2022
A life that calls to those searching for escape, but the punishing schedule, isolation, wild weather and fraught companionship leaves minds in tatters. Alas, he never really seems to grow out of his problems.
October 18, 2024
"I was alone in all that nothing and noise—the last man before the ice, the most southerly man on the whole continent—calling out to my kids.
"I knew you couldn't hear me calling. Nobody could. I was too far away from the world, which I suppose was how I liked it. I'd marooned myself in a life I loved, even if it kept me away from all of you. I used to blame my absence on my job, but it takes a certain type of man to choose the life I chose.
"Lighthouses are just romantic museums now, but back then they could devour a man if he let them. I did. I let them. And I'd do it again. If technology hadn't taken the lights from me, if be there still, lying out on that balcony, pining for you.
"This is they story of why. This is an attempt to bring you with me this time. This is my way of showing you why I chose that life. I want to show you what wonderful and addictive beasts lighthouses were. I want to show you that my being away mattered.
"I want to show you what a man does when he can't be in the world" Pp. 1-2
"Even now, I envy animals. I envy them their one outfit and their freedom. I envy how birds don't trust the branch they rest on, they trust their wings. And how animals don't question, they simply let themselves do what they love to do. They are at home in their bodies." P. 253
"I'd learnt over the years that people need newness and danger, but only in the presence of safe predictability." P. 338
~~~
This is a beautiful, confronting, emotional book.
It is more about John Cook and his struggles and strivings than about lighthouses and the *romance* of them, but I think that's kind of the point.
While we do get plenty of details about how lighthouses were run and the work involved (and it's fascinating), I feel like you can't cleanly separate the running and work of being a lighthouse keeper with the intense emotional, spiritual and relationship challenges that come along with it.
First of all, they are remote, a few people on an isolated island, often inaccessible due to weather. Secondly, there was generally no tv, and not necessarily radio (for personal use) either. Library books would typically be delivered when the mail boat came every couple of weeks. Thirdly, the work was constant, physically demanding, and often in intense weather, plus they were working with MERCURY and kerosene all the time. The fumes!! The poisons! And the mould in some of the houses 🤢 There is lots of time to either have to face your demons or find ways to escape them.
John Cook obviously had severe issues he has had to work through. It reads as though he had anxiety and depression, and a huge amount of guilt and grief over not being in his children's lives. I did really love though that he could reflect on his feelings and admit that though he couldn't see it then, he knows now he was responsible for his own mistakes. I really adored the humility that came through a lot of his reflections and feel like he did a lot of emotional work between the events he describes in the book and the time he wrote it.
The book has harsh moments, some violence, some language and some very "Australian memoir" type things, and references to love making as well as affairs, but it's done in a matter of fact manner and doesn't go into unneeded details. (And it's interesting to note that John made connections with Greenpeace soon after they began in Canada.)
The book has poetry and wonder in many places, plus the wisdom of a life lived hard. I feel like John was a sensitive, emotional man, but he made some bad decisions and didn't have the resources or knowledge for dealing with the fallout and the emotions (not abnormal for the time period). I'm not sure how much of the lyrical prose is due to Jon Bauer's influence, but either way it's lovely, and I feel like it had to already be present in the way John talked and shared stories with him.
I really enjoyed this book and recommend it for people who love stories about Tasmania, or lighthouses, or stories that cut to the heart of a human, or a mixture of these elements. I like all three, so five stars from me!
"I knew you couldn't hear me calling. Nobody could. I was too far away from the world, which I suppose was how I liked it. I'd marooned myself in a life I loved, even if it kept me away from all of you. I used to blame my absence on my job, but it takes a certain type of man to choose the life I chose.
"Lighthouses are just romantic museums now, but back then they could devour a man if he let them. I did. I let them. And I'd do it again. If technology hadn't taken the lights from me, if be there still, lying out on that balcony, pining for you.
"This is they story of why. This is an attempt to bring you with me this time. This is my way of showing you why I chose that life. I want to show you what wonderful and addictive beasts lighthouses were. I want to show you that my being away mattered.
"I want to show you what a man does when he can't be in the world" Pp. 1-2
"Even now, I envy animals. I envy them their one outfit and their freedom. I envy how birds don't trust the branch they rest on, they trust their wings. And how animals don't question, they simply let themselves do what they love to do. They are at home in their bodies." P. 253
"I'd learnt over the years that people need newness and danger, but only in the presence of safe predictability." P. 338
~~~
This is a beautiful, confronting, emotional book.
It is more about John Cook and his struggles and strivings than about lighthouses and the *romance* of them, but I think that's kind of the point.
While we do get plenty of details about how lighthouses were run and the work involved (and it's fascinating), I feel like you can't cleanly separate the running and work of being a lighthouse keeper with the intense emotional, spiritual and relationship challenges that come along with it.
First of all, they are remote, a few people on an isolated island, often inaccessible due to weather. Secondly, there was generally no tv, and not necessarily radio (for personal use) either. Library books would typically be delivered when the mail boat came every couple of weeks. Thirdly, the work was constant, physically demanding, and often in intense weather, plus they were working with MERCURY and kerosene all the time. The fumes!! The poisons! And the mould in some of the houses 🤢 There is lots of time to either have to face your demons or find ways to escape them.
John Cook obviously had severe issues he has had to work through. It reads as though he had anxiety and depression, and a huge amount of guilt and grief over not being in his children's lives. I did really love though that he could reflect on his feelings and admit that though he couldn't see it then, he knows now he was responsible for his own mistakes. I really adored the humility that came through a lot of his reflections and feel like he did a lot of emotional work between the events he describes in the book and the time he wrote it.
The book has harsh moments, some violence, some language and some very "Australian memoir" type things, and references to love making as well as affairs, but it's done in a matter of fact manner and doesn't go into unneeded details. (And it's interesting to note that John made connections with Greenpeace soon after they began in Canada.)
The book has poetry and wonder in many places, plus the wisdom of a life lived hard. I feel like John was a sensitive, emotional man, but he made some bad decisions and didn't have the resources or knowledge for dealing with the fallout and the emotions (not abnormal for the time period). I'm not sure how much of the lyrical prose is due to Jon Bauer's influence, but either way it's lovely, and I feel like it had to already be present in the way John talked and shared stories with him.
I really enjoyed this book and recommend it for people who love stories about Tasmania, or lighthouses, or stories that cut to the heart of a human, or a mixture of these elements. I like all three, so five stars from me!
November 26, 2020
Book alert: What an absolutely amazing read! “Books like lighthouses, illuminate the dark seas of life.” This novel starts with this quote and if you have ever wondered what life would be like on an isolated island where the weather is the main protagonist, well... this novel will reveal all. This book provides a unique insight into a lifestyle that has now been overtaken by technology. The majority of the action takes place on Tasman Island offering vivid descriptions of all the challenges of being a lighthouse keeper. It also gives glimpses into what a life on Maatsuyker Island entails and ends with a hint of Bruny. John, lighthouse keeper, says, “What you have to learn when you are stuck with people is how to eat around the rotten bits of peach.” Being isolated on an island with a couple of other families brings out the madness that is seeded in everyone when confronted with constant and often unexpected hardships. No dentist, no doctor, no vet , no supermarket and besides these limitations to your life...water and food are scare at times when the tanks run dry and service ships can’t dock. Try eating only mutton and mutton birds for weeks on end! This book is also as much about relationships as it is about the trials and tribulations of keeping the lights on for passing ships. I loved this book so much, especially the parts about Nella the kangaroo stowed away to live on Tasman Island, the winds you can lean into and rest your body on and the social interactions and the you-just-have-to-accept-it madness of nearly all the people in the book. And if you are a dog lover, there’s lots in this riveting story for you too. Based on one man’s experiences celebrating wilderness and solitude you won’t be able to put it down.
February 10, 2023
There is a certain romantic notion some people, like myself, hold about solitarily manning a lighthouse at the end of the world. It seems like a life conducive to becoming one with nature, holding space for reflection, disappearing into the self yadda yadda; Essentially people 'inspired' by books like Thoreau's Walden. To be honest, the book is pitched for people like us. Cook & Bauer emphatically disprove that notion- not only does it sound like hard work but can also get extremely lonely being stuck on a rocky island on a cold, foggy day.
The book is uneven in how much time it allocates to certain segments of Cook's life. A lot of the running time deals with Cook's kids but is mostly repetitive and hardly illuminating. The narrative structure is unobvious with some days reading as exhaustively as a diary and some months just skipped over. And because we are almost entirely in Cook's head throughout, we don't get a sense of the interiority of anyone else at all. I suppose that's somewhat true for all memoirs yet the solipsism is sometimes a bit too much.
Having said that, the writing is easy, quick and occasionally produces terrific lines wrung from a lot of life experience. For instance, at one point Cook/ Bauer write, "As if richness did not lie in purpose and meaning, but in leisure" and I tripped over that line amidst more banal observations. I plan to visit Maatsuuyker when I visit Tassie to experience the rugged beauty communicated in the book but I wouldn't want to stay back there. The book's convinced me of that much.
The book is uneven in how much time it allocates to certain segments of Cook's life. A lot of the running time deals with Cook's kids but is mostly repetitive and hardly illuminating. The narrative structure is unobvious with some days reading as exhaustively as a diary and some months just skipped over. And because we are almost entirely in Cook's head throughout, we don't get a sense of the interiority of anyone else at all. I suppose that's somewhat true for all memoirs yet the solipsism is sometimes a bit too much.
Having said that, the writing is easy, quick and occasionally produces terrific lines wrung from a lot of life experience. For instance, at one point Cook/ Bauer write, "As if richness did not lie in purpose and meaning, but in leisure" and I tripped over that line amidst more banal observations. I plan to visit Maatsuuyker when I visit Tassie to experience the rugged beauty communicated in the book but I wouldn't want to stay back there. The book's convinced me of that much.
January 3, 2021
I am feeling quite conflicted about this book. As a person who is living in Tasmania myself, I wanted to read all about life as a lighthouse keeper (at one point I was considering doing this myself) and what it was like to live in such isolated places but with plenty of amazing wildlife around you.
What this book was mostly about was the author's bad choices in his personal life. He spends a LOT of pages talking about how he didn't do right by his kids and his relationship with his partner, Deb, who must have had the patience of a saint (as well as his ex-wife). It left me thinking that some people should know themselves a little better and not get married/have kids etc. His personality is clearly not cut out for all that marriage and children involves, he was never going to settle down in the suburbs somewhere. What a shame for his ex's and his kids! I felt really sorry for them all.
When it came to the logistics of being on a remote island, that was quite interesting. I had to skim over several descriptions though as I am a soft touch when it comes to animals. I have always said that if I had to kill animals in order to eat meat, I would be vegetarian!
Anyway, this book was a bit of a mixed bag. It is a shame, because it could have been so much better.
What this book was mostly about was the author's bad choices in his personal life. He spends a LOT of pages talking about how he didn't do right by his kids and his relationship with his partner, Deb, who must have had the patience of a saint (as well as his ex-wife). It left me thinking that some people should know themselves a little better and not get married/have kids etc. His personality is clearly not cut out for all that marriage and children involves, he was never going to settle down in the suburbs somewhere. What a shame for his ex's and his kids! I felt really sorry for them all.
When it came to the logistics of being on a remote island, that was quite interesting. I had to skim over several descriptions though as I am a soft touch when it comes to animals. I have always said that if I had to kill animals in order to eat meat, I would be vegetarian!
Anyway, this book was a bit of a mixed bag. It is a shame, because it could have been so much better.
October 28, 2022
This is a memoir by a man who was a lighthouse keeper in Tasmania during the 60s and 70s, during the changeover from kerosene to electric powered lighthouses.
I should have loved this as it had all the elements I love - Tasmania, lighthouses, nature, the ocean, living a solitary life, facing hardships.
And there were little sections that I loved. When he was living at the most southerly lighthouse in the world, he describes seeing a humpback whale glide past the island. He also talks about lying under the stars and watching the Aurora Australis.
The descriptions of getting on and off the islands are crazy! And the weather they had to contend with, particularly on Maatsuyker. As he says, certainly not the romantic, peaceful life outsiders imagine.
"They always make lighthouses look so peaceful and romantic. They're as romantic as sharks."
But most of the book is about his own personal struggles with his two marriages and his first wife keeping his children from him.
I just wanted more about the lighthouses!
You can still work on Maatsuyker Island - there is a caretaker position. So one couple lives on the island for six months at a time. It certainly does look beautiful!
I should have loved this as it had all the elements I love - Tasmania, lighthouses, nature, the ocean, living a solitary life, facing hardships.
And there were little sections that I loved. When he was living at the most southerly lighthouse in the world, he describes seeing a humpback whale glide past the island. He also talks about lying under the stars and watching the Aurora Australis.
The descriptions of getting on and off the islands are crazy! And the weather they had to contend with, particularly on Maatsuyker. As he says, certainly not the romantic, peaceful life outsiders imagine.
"They always make lighthouses look so peaceful and romantic. They're as romantic as sharks."
But most of the book is about his own personal struggles with his two marriages and his first wife keeping his children from him.
I just wanted more about the lighthouses!
You can still work on Maatsuyker Island - there is a caretaker position. So one couple lives on the island for six months at a time. It certainly does look beautiful!
November 14, 2021
I really loved this book so much I read it all in a day! I could not put it down. John Cook's description of his time as the lighthouse keeper at the Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island Lighthouses was engaging, dramatic, and open. It told what life would have been like, the painful struggles of life in some of the most remote places in Australia and also the joy and adventure that comes with being in somewhere so remote and wild. It inspired in me a fascination and desire to explore the lighthouses of Tasmania. I love reading books set in Tasmania as this is my home and this one deserves to be shared with the world! John Cook and Jon Bauer have a wonderful writing style that make John's real life stories really come alive. I have shared this book with many friends and family and they have all read it very quickly and loved it! I know feel I know so much more about the kerosene lighthouses and those people brave enough to man them!
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November 23, 2020A very good read. Partly because several of my relatives were lighthouse keepers along the Victorian coast, and partly from my own experience as a fire spotter, I could relate to a lot of the story. I actually applied for a similar light house job, but didn't get it due to not being married. A firsthand account of a lost and iconic occupation. Well enough written, though I wondered if John Cook's voice came through enough, and how much influence his co-writer and editors amended his natural mode of expression. Mars expedition planners should read this account carefully for how isolation affects some people. Recommend this book.
Annoyingly, there is another book, a romantic note, titled "The Last Lighthouse Keeper"
by Alan Titchmarsh, first published in 2004, and I would have preferred that a better title had been found for John Cook's account.
Annoyingly, there is another book, a romantic note, titled "The Last Lighthouse Keeper"
by Alan Titchmarsh, first published in 2004, and I would have preferred that a better title had been found for John Cook's account.
October 29, 2021
I have just finished this memoir by John Cook with Jon Bauer. John Cook was a lighthouse keeper, one of the last before the lights of the lighthouses were ‘electrified’ in the 1970s. It deals mostly with his time on Tasman and Maatsuyker Islands, which are about as remote as you can get, off the Tasmanian coast.
Apart from being an account of how it was to live and work in such remote areas, it was also almost a psychological study of his thought processes. I am in two minds about the book at the moment. There were some brilliant turns of phrase and descriptions of whales, auroras and the impact of the beam of light itself, interspersed with some very pedestrian prose. Still, I guess that’s not dissimilar to life really.
Apart from being an account of how it was to live and work in such remote areas, it was also almost a psychological study of his thought processes. I am in two minds about the book at the moment. There were some brilliant turns of phrase and descriptions of whales, auroras and the impact of the beam of light itself, interspersed with some very pedestrian prose. Still, I guess that’s not dissimilar to life really.
August 25, 2022
An evocative memoir by John Cook, the last of the kerosene lighthouse keepers, stationed amongst the brutal weather and wilderness of remote islands off the shores of Tasmania. There is no sugar coating the unimaginably difficult life conditions required to maintain a love of the perpetual light to which he is magnetised. With great honesty, he details the effect that the love of work has on his failed or failing relationships with his children, his ex-wife and finally his current wife. Riveting read.
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