Ancient Futures and The Fatal Shore

          I read an obituary today of Robert Hughes. It said he was an art critic. I knew him as the writer of The Fatal Shore, a book about early Australian settlement. Since it did a history degree at university, I have read a lot of wonderful history books, but  The Fatal Shore is up there with them. Loved it. I read it just before I spent a year in Western  Australia which is where I started writing Ancient Futures. There is a scene in a penal colony in this book and it was inspired by stories in The Fatal Shore. I thought I'd mention that since the boy just died. Ancient Futures is free today.