Candice mentioned Liz McMahon's reference to Tasmania, "reputed to have been Swift's source for Lilliput". Tim Thorne, Launceston based poet and publisher, put out "Along these Lines" a couple of weeks ago, a 440 page compilation of poetry and prose edited by CA Cranston. The material is by people who have visited Tasmania, includes material by Swift, Mark Twain, Charles Darwin, Gwen Harwood, Margaret Scott etc ... "we have put Errol Flynn and Germaine Greer between the same covers" was a line in the advertising spiel.
>From the book is an extract from "Gulliver's Travels", including "...; let it suffice to inform him, that in our passage from thence to the East Indies we were driven by a violent storm to the northwest of Van Diemen's Land. By an observation, we found ourselves in the latitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes south". (Though an editorial comment suggests the latitude given "doesn't correspond to the location of Van Diemen's Land").
On a different tack ... Cassie ... I exchanged a couple of letters last year with Kevin Killian ... one of nature's gentlemen, in my opinion.
Best,
Ralph
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