“MADMAN’S ISLAND”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23637, 22 October 1938, Page 4

“MADMAN’S ISLAND”

MR IDRIESS AS CASTAWAY Being marooned on a desert island is not all that many people imagine it to be. especially if the island is a barren, grassy knoll surrounded on three sides by a mangrove forest, and if a person’s fellow-castaway is a madman. That, however, was the experience of lon L. Idriess. the Australian author, who describes the experiences of six harrowing months in “Madman’s Island.” his latest publication. With the exception of his vivid war diary " The Desert Column.” the original version of “Madman’s Island” published in 1927, was the author’s first book. On that occasion he had been compelled to mingle fact with fiction to satisfy his publishers, but now the true details of Mr Idriess’s experiences have been set down, and they make a remarkable story. The original details were culled from the pages of a ship’s log in which the author had written to prevent himself from going mad with solitude when he was driven to an outlying part of the island by his insane companion and here it may be said that the island is the principal one of the Howick group situated in the Great Barrier Reef off the romantic coast of the Cape York Peninsula Mr Idriess landed with the intention of prospecting for tin. He was to be picked up and returned to the mainland a month later, and it was not until it was too late that he discovered that his partner, who had received during the war a ghastly stomach wound that required constant doctoring, had no intention of returning to civilisation. All went well for the first few weeks, but when the food supply gave out and his companion was driven mad by the pain in his old wound, the author was forced to retire on to the reef to protect himself, and from there he was only able to obtain his supply of water bv matching his wits against the cunning of the madman. Life for both men became a primitive fight for existence, and they were forced to obtain their food by spearing fish in the mangroves. Mr Idriess was able to associate with his companion only in the latter’s brief saner interludes, and their experiences make remarkable reading The book cannot, however, be regarded as a good sample of Mr Idricss’s work. It certainly lacks the scope of his previous efforts, nor has it much evidence of the fine descriptive power which he is capable of exercising Short as it is. there is not really sufficient material in it to justify its length, and it would have made a far more effective tale in short story form. D. S. F.