WEST AUSTRALIANA Maritime Aboriginal –

First Edition.

• The Price of Pearls (2006) is a historical fiction novel by Western Australian author and maritime expert Hugh Edwards. Set in the late 19th century, it follows the romance of an American sailor, Tom Lanark, and Mary Condon amidst the dangerous, cut-throat pearling industry in Broome. The story blends detailed history with themes of injustice, Aboriginal life, and colonial society. 

  Tom Lanark, a down-on-his-luck sailor from America could not begin to foresee his trouble when he ends up in Fremantle Gaol, wrongly accused of killing a police constable. English beauty Mary Condon cannot believe her misfortune when she is ostracised from her home country, her family and everything she holds dear after an affair with a married man. Beginning a new life in Western Australia the future seems bleak, that is until a chance meeting with a charming sailor.

  Hugh Edwards takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster of a journey and deep into the history of Aboriginal life, British upper-class society, the tradition of Japanese whaling and the gritty reality of the pearling industry which was thriving in the late 19 th century.

  The Price of Pearls is a quintessential blend of accurate history and gripping narrative. A stunning debut into fiction by an established and much-loved West Australian author.

  Hugh Edwards is an award-winning author of 30 books and a marine photographer, as well as a journalist, diver and film-maker. His passion for maritime interests has led him to participate in the discovery of many famous shipwrecks and relics. His book Islands of Angry Ghosts written about his expedition to the 1629 Batavia won the Sir Thomas White Memorial Prize for the best book written by an Australian.

  viii, 366 p. ; 21 cm. #220226