SAVAGE by Nick Hazelwood
The Life and Times of Jemmy Button
Hodder and Stoughton  - 2000
ISBN 0340739118 - Hardback-7y67

Reviewed by Rachel Hyde, MyShelf.com
 Buy a UK Copy

It is an oft-quoted saying that “The Past is a different country; they do things differently there” and it is also said that the lesson of history is that nobody learns from it.  This is a story of genocide and man’s inhumanity to man.  The destruction of the Tasmanians is a well-known example of the effects of “civilisation” upon the “savage”; the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego met the same fate but their case is not so publicised.  In 1830 a Yahgan was bought from his uncle for the price of a pearl button and named Jemmy Button.  He was taken away to England, made into a Christian and a celebrity.  He met with Darwin and the two became friends, travelling back to Tierra del Fuego together where Jemmy was given the task of “civilising” the other Yahgans.  Hunted by missionaries and ostracised by his dwindling people Jemmy had his work cut out for him to merely survive.

Jemmy was the ultimate “noble savage” perhaps, and a symbol of the British Empire’s rabid desire to conquer and convert.  Savage is not a novel but it can be read and enjoyed like one and on many levels.  It is at once a tale of adventure and the extraordinary lives people led in the days when there were still a few blank spaces on the map and also the tragic story of our own past and the evils committed in the name of civilisation and God.  I couldn’t put it down and will remember it for a long time I think.  It will be staying on my keeper shelf along with Nathaniel’s Nutmeg which is also reviewed in this issue.  Two works of historical nonfiction that can be enjoyed and savored by fiction fans – modern factual writing at its very best.

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