NO SIMPLE PASSAGE:

The Journey of the "London"  to New Zealand, 1842 - a ship of hope

“The London will disgorge you into a bush-clad land without written literature, a land without writers. For decades there will be no one who can even begin to do the work of making sense of the new society, and anyway, who needs writers when there are swamps to drain, ditches to dig, bush to clear, fences to string with No. 8 wire?”

How do you become a New Zealander? What was life like on an emigrant ship in the 1840s? Social historian, Jenny Robin Jones, chooses a moment in time in New Zealand’s emigrant history, ‘travelling’ with her ancestor Rebecca Remington on board the London in 1842 on an eventful and arduous four-month journey from London to Port Nicholson.

Jenny Robin Jones casts a forensic, visceral eye on the minutiae of life on the London, collapsing the distance of 150-odd years to place the reader right in the thick of the world of a steerage passenger.

She surveys the passengers and crew with tender appreciation, noting their relationships, anxieties, and expectations, and their daily struggles with disease, hygiene, nutrition, work and rest, birth and death. Jones accurately renders this life at sea using the journals of the ship’s surgeon and one of the passengers, as well as drawing on family histories and historical archives.

The narrative extends well beyond the arrival of the London, moving forward in time 20 years to reveal how the passengers fared – those who survived and flourished, and those who foundered. Jones chronicles Wellington as the emigrants found it; those challenging early years of European settlement, as the emigrants carved out the land — and a living — in a foreign, sometimes hostile environment.

The turbulent historical events that played out in the mid-1800s — events in which the emigrants become embroiled — are recounted from the perspective and participation of the passengers, allowing larger events, such as the Wairau debacle, to be seen from a very human perspective.

The text is peppered with a rich, eclectic range of historical illustrations, new illustrations, paintings and photography, which give visual life to the story.

No Simple Passage is narrative non-fiction history at its lively and colourful best, and Jones manages that most difficult of things, bringing history alive in an accessible, informative and comprehensive way.

About the author:

Jenny Robin Jones is a self-described feral historian. She is the author of Writers in Residence: a Journey with Pioneer New Zealand Writers and has written short stories, travel articles, author biographies and children’s non-fiction. In 2008 she began writing full time.
She has had a long involvement with the New Zealand Society of Authors, serving as executive director. She has also been board director for Copyright Licensing Limited, as well as having been the chair of the selection panel for the annual CLL awards for the past eight years.

Random House  $45.00
Publication 1 April, 2011