To the Ends of the Earth

To the Ends of the Earth follows Edmund Talbot, a well-connected young Englishman travelling to take up a colonial appointment in Australia during the Napoleonic era. The three novels are set aboard an ageing former warship crowded with naval officers, sailors, soldiers, emigrants and servants. Talbot begins the voyage confident in his rank and judgement, but shipboard confinement repeatedly exposes his blindness to class, sexuality, religious prejudice and the suffering of people he treats as social inferiors.

Rites of Passage records the disgrace and death of the Reverend Robert James Colley through Talbot’s private journal. Close Quarters continues the voyage through tropical heat, a becalmed sea, structural damage and Talbot’s attachment to Marion Chumley. Fire Down Below brings the deteriorating vessel through storm, ice and a hidden fire before the passengers finally reach Australia. Across the trilogy, the ship becomes a compressed version of Georgian Britain and its empire, forcing people who expect hierarchy and order to confront dependence, desire and physical danger.