Dancing with Strangers: The True History of the Meeting of the British First Fleet and the Aboriginal Australians, 1788

In January of 1788, the First Fleet arrived in New South Wales and a thousand British men and women encountered the people who will be their new neighbours – the beach nomads of Australia. “These people mixed with ours,” wrote a British observer soon after the landfall, “and all hands danced together.” What followed would determine relations between the peoples for the next two hundred years. Drawing skilfully on first-hand accounts and historical records, Inga Clendinnen reconstructs the complex dance of curiosity, attraction, and mistrust performed by the protagonists of either side. She brings this key chapter in British colonial history brilliantly alive. Then we discover why the dancing stopped…

Reviews of Dancing with Strangers: The True History of the Meeting of the British First Fleet and the Aboriginal Australians, 1788

"'Clendinnen writes so well, with an eye for detail and character that make her a pleasure to read… Her words dance across the page' NEW YORK TIMES 'I cannot imagine that a more vivid or beguiling account of the origins of British Australia will ever be written. An extraordinary achievement' ROBERT MANNE, AGE"