Coral Sea Calling

<p>The treacherous and beautiful Coral Sea is the background for this story of the nineteenth century adventurers on perilous voyages into its waters in search of the <em>bêche-de-mer</em> and pearl shell; of the savage chiefs who ruled its islands; of the seamen who charted it; of the explorers struggling up the Queensland coast; a tale of the taming of the wilderness and its people.</p><p><br></p><p><em>...as in all Idriess books there is always something good somewhere; and here it is the two chapters on Jemmy the Hook who had had both hands chopped off by mutinous islander-crews and who returned with iron hooks instead of hands to take a gruesome vengeance on yet another mutinous crew; it is a story which calls all the Idriess descriptive powers into play and the reader avid of blood-and-guts can be assured of exactly that</em>. - <em>The Bulletin</em> 1957</p><p><br></p><p><em>As so often in Australian letters an initial fall into obscurity and harsh judgments of the literary establishment serve as good indicators of a writer's pre-eminence</em>. - Nicholas Rothwell <em>The Australian</em> 2017</p>