FitzSimons’s Cook to stun

BESTSELLING non-fiction writer, Peter FitzSimons is heading to Ballarat to share his latest book, James Cook with regional audiences.

The evening at the Mercure Hotel on Thursday, 28 November will delve into the “story behind the man who mapped the world,” but FitzSimons said chapters of that tale will “stun” people.

“If you come to the iconic moment of first contact in Australia between England and the indigenous First Peoples, how many people know that Cook effectively shot the first indigenous man he saw?” FitzSimons said.

“How do we not know that? I could not believe my own level of ignorance and Australia’s level of ignorance. It’s stunning how little we know.”

FitzSimons’s curiosity was sparked by Cook when his wife, journalist Lisa Wilkinson mentioned the navigator as the most “mythological figure in Australian history,” although most don’t know a thing about the man.

“In 1900, Cook was probably at the absolute peak of his fame and celebrity because federation came… and who’s the person most responsible? Captain Cook. ‘He’s a hero,’” FitzSimons said.

“Now that we’re, more than ever, aware of the tragedy of indigenous experience under white settlement, Cook becomes the anti-hero that started it all.

“The idea was, beyond the politics and beyond the angles, to boost and lower his share price. Who was the man? What was he actually like?”

Ahead of the Ballarat launch of James Cook, which includes a sit-down dinner, FitzSimons thought about historical guests he’d chat to over a meal.

“Of the people I’ve written about… Peter Lalor from Ballarat would be front and centre. To my right hand, I’d have Ned Kelly, and Cook, I’d really want to talk to about his experience with the First Nation’s Peoples,” he said.

“But he would not be a loquacious dinner guest. He’s not the guy that would hold court and he wouldn’t have Ned Kelly, Douglas Mawson and Peter Lalor leaning towards him for the man himself, but rather for what he’d seen.

“Cook was a very button-down man, poor as a church mouse who rose by the power of his education, and had a colossal opportunity, as a maritime man, to take a ship to the other side of the world.”

Tickets are available for $60 per person in store at Collins Booksellers on Lydiard or via contacting the Facebook page, facebook.com/CollinsBooksellersonLydiard. The price includes a two-course meal alongside the book launch.