At the beginning of this year I was in Australia again – this time in Western Australia. The trip was mostly holiday but I also managed to visit some of the places where the events described in ‘The Blue Eyed Aborigine’ took place.
We were lucky enough to fly to the Abrolhos Islands, 40 miles west of the town of Geraldton, and land on one of the islands – East Wallaby island - the island where Wiebbe Hayes and his men were sent by Corneliez.
It was an amazing experience for me to walk round this uninhabited island and imagine those desperate soldiers and sailors - and even more moving to see Beacon Island which is where all the people were originally taken when the Batavia was wrecked on the nearby reef. Beacon Island is absolutely tiny and there is no way that it could have sustained the numbers originally marooned there. There are a few shacks on the island now, inhabited, during the crayfishing season by fishermen and their families. I wonder how many of them are aware of all the dreadful things that happened there in 1629.
Beacon Island, where the Batavia massacre happened
East Wallaby Island, where Wiebbe Hayes and his soldiers were taken
West Wallaby Island. This is where Wiebbe found water and where he built his fort. You can see the remains of his fort here,the first European building in Australia
We went further north from Geraldton after this and found the place where it is thought that Jan and Wouter were abandoned - at a small creek close to the huge Murchison River. How alone and frightened they must have felt.
Wittecarra Creek close to the Murchison River in Western Australia, where it is thought that Jan and Wouter were marooned
Also, while I was in Western Australia, I started researching another fascinating shipwreck story … watch this space!
My latest book ‘Rising Above Bullying’ was launched in Cambridge on 24th March and it is completely different from anything else I’ve done. It was written in collaboration with Carrie Herbert, the CEO of a charity called Red Balloon. Red Balloon runs schools for children who have been so severely bullied that they can no longer cope in mainstream education. Many of the young people who find their way to Red Balloon have either contemplated or attempted suicide. At a Red Balloon Learner Centre, they nurture these damaged children, build up their self esteem, give them one to one tuition and get them back to school or on to college or into the workplace.
I interviewed eight young people who were brave enough to tell me their stories – stories which shocked me and will shock anyone who reads the book. The extent of bullying in schools and the depth of the damage it causes is horrifying. The stories are followed by advice from the staff at Red Balloon who have had years of experience in recovering bullied children and are in the best possible position to equip young people with the tools with which to combat bullying.
The launch of the book was a very special occasion. Red Balloon students sang for us quite beautifully – a huge achievement from children to whom doing anything in public is very scary indeed – and many of the speakers, including one of the young people featured in the book and Esther Rantzen, patron of Red Balloon, talked movingly about the charity and what it meant to them. I don’t think that anyone who came to the launch (and it was crowded out) will forget the evening in a hurry.
Carrie and myself signing books at the launch of ’Rising Above Bullying’
So now it’s on to the next book which should be out in the summer of 2012. The working title is ‘Loose Connections’ and it is about a dotty grannie – among other things – a subject to which I can readily relate!