This is John Cook's memoir and story brilliantly told by 'ghostwriter' John Bauer. John Cook spent 26 years tending Tasmania's well-known kerosene 'lights' at Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island. The Last Lighthouse Keeper is a brilliant and epic memoir set on Tasmania's eastern and southern coasts telling the tale of John Cook's life as a lighthouse keeper. I will think about this book for a long time and hopefully get to visit each of his lighthouses one day.more The loss of his way of life is even more telling and draws parallels to our current world where we are all suffering through a pandemic at the hands of technology and our collective behaviour (e.g., international travel en masse, overuse of natural resources, disregard for the environment). Not only are the places (and weather) unique, beautiful, and terrifying, but he also shares a deeply personal story. The loss of his way of life is even more telling and draws parallels to our current world where we are all suffering through a pandemic at the hands of technology and our collective behaviour (e.g., international travel en masse, overuse of natural resources, disregard for I am really glad that John Cook has captured his life as a lighthouse keeper across Tasmania in this memoir. I am really glad that John Cook has captured his life as a lighthouse keeper across Tasmania in this memoir.
There is nothing evocative or celebratory about this poorly written memoir which I would recommend avoiding.more The back cover describes “The last lighthouse keeper” as “evocatively told” and “a celebration of wilderness and a dying way of life”. Don’t read it for the lighthouses, as lighthouses take second place to his own egotistical story.Ī note to Allen & Unwin if they are listening. I wouldn’t want to work for him or be stuck on an island with him.
#Life of a lighthouse keeper professional#
Double standards in his personal and professional life, failed relationships, personal and professional deception, a possessive disposition, a bully to his work colleagues all come across strongly in this rather depressing memoir. No, this is the memoir of a man whose lifelong poor decision-making skills resulted in mental health issues and who ended being up isolated from family and friends. That would have been an enlightening and fascinating read. Double standards in his personal and professional life, failed relationships, personal and professional deception, a possessive disposition, a bully to his work colleagues all come ac This is not the story of lighthouses in Tasmania on the remote Tasman and Maatsuyker Islands.
This is not the story of lighthouses in Tasmania on the remote Tasman and Maatsuyker Islands. But for John, nothing was more heartbreaking than the introduction of electric lights, and the lighthouses that were left empty forever.Įvocatively told, The Last Lighthouse Keeper is a love story between a man and a dying way of life, as well as a celebration of wilderness and solitude.more As one of Australia's longest-serving lighthouse keepers, John spent 26 years tending Tasmania's well-known kerosene 'lights' at Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island.įrom sleepless nights keeping the lights alive, battling the wind and sea as they ripped at gutters and flooded stores, raising a joey, tending sheep and keeping ducks and chickens, the life of a keeper was one of unexpected joy and heartbreak. In Tasmania, John Cook is known as 'The Keeper of the Flame'. People asked how we stood the isolation and boredom, but in some ways, it was more stimulating to have your senses turned up. I loved the life of the island, because I knew my body was more alive than it was on the mainland. Noble work that can ultimately redeem a lost soul. 'John Cook's ripping life story exposes Tasmania's old kero-fuelled lighthouses: relentless physically and emotionally demanding labour, done under the often cruel vagaries of nature. A story about madness and wilderness, shining a light onto the vicissitudes of love and nature. Noble wor A beautiful memoir from John Cook, one of Tasmania's last kerosene lighthouse keepers.
A beautiful memoir from John Cook, one of Tasmania's last kerosene lighthouse keepers.
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