This is an excellent, one-of-a-kind field guide. Not since the 1940s has any book on this area of the Pacific appeared, let alone such a beautiful, usable field guide. The illustrations, maps and text are both accurate and up-to-date. The authors, highly reputable ornithologists of international stature, are to be congratulated on their efforts in this little-known area of the Pacific, historically and currently beset with political strife.

The bulk of this book consists of fascinating, funny interviews with former colonial British and French officials (and their families) on the Anglo-French Pacific island colony of the New Hebrides. There are also interviews with some of the older island locals of the colony's successor, Vanuatu. Included are many interesting black and white pictures of houses and public buildings (all modest by comparison with, say, the buildings of British India), and these compliment the colourful anecdotes and stories of life in this colonial (and modern) backwater.

The book is prefaced with a chapter containing the author's academic thesis. This I found jargon-laden and ineptly written. But no matter, the bulk of the book with all its fasciniting tales and personalities, and the pictures, make this a strange and fascinating little book. It will appeal to the curiosity of the general reader as well as to anyone who has lived abroad in a colony/ex-colony and was surrounded by interesting imperial architure, grand or modest.

If you like Jan Morris's books, like Hong Kong or Stones of Empire, this will make an enjoyable if eccentric addition to your library.

This is a companion book to Don Johnson's Cruising Guide to Maine Vol I Kittery to Rockland. See my review under that title.

As a sailer planning a world cruise, I view this book as one of the best cruising books I have read because it touches so much on the cultures and people along the way rather than merely on the sailing aspects. I have only read volume one and am eagerly awiting volume two. If you are not a sailer, this is a superb armchair travel book. You will really feel you are meeting people all over the globe. Sue manages to convey the excitement, beauty, learning and sharing of a couple sailing around the world.

We're featuring this book in a section of COCONUT, the Web Guide to the Tropical World. The section is all about kava, and the author's new book comes out at a perfect time, as interest in Kava is growing rapidly all over the world.This book rambles at times, but the story of the author's encounters with a village of ni-Vanuatu people is wonderful and memorable and happily, it forms the bulk of the book.For a full review of Chris Kilham's KAVA book, check out the COCONUT website (which will be making its grand opening in August 1996) at http://www.coconut.com.---- Brian Dear, Editor of "COCONUT"

This book gave me the comfort level and impetus to try Kava as a cure for my chronic insomnia. Previously I read and tried melatonin, with no success. Finally a protracted illness lead me to search again. The author gives enough details on the plant, pharmocology, and ethnobotany. There is eight pages of full references for additional research, if desired.

Went to a local health food store / COOP with the book in hand and had the staff present the different brands of Kava in stock. Finally selected a Kava tincture because a salesperson / user said that this is the best form, compared to powdered root, capsules, and other standardized extracts. He said you will get the fastest and most powerful effects with this tincture, especially since the label said it was extracted from Vanuatu Isl 4-8 yr old roots. He was right on target; the tincture gave a white cloudy mixture when a couple of dropperfuls in 1/3 glass of water. It tasted pretty musty, as expected from reading about the Nakamals, native kava bars!! Got a slight numbing of the tongue too! Fell asleep within 30 minutes and did not wake up for 6 hours, refreshed and alert. The next best thing to being there with the author, who wrote a great story.

My first time using tinctures. Normally I use capsules or try to make a tea out of the bark or root. The book told me of the uselessness of making a tea, as heat destoys the kavalactones.

Who has ever heard of a someone who, having a highly succesful preaching ministry in a civilized country, leaves it to others and instead goes to work amongst cannibals on a small island in the middle of a great ocean? Yet this was exactly what John Paton did! He not only was aware of the fact that the islanders were in the habit of clubbing people to death, boiling them and then eating them up, but he also knew that before his arrival to the cannibal islands, previous missionaries had attempted the same task but had beed killed and eaten as soon as they reached the islands. Then why did he go? He went because he wanted the gospel of Christ to have progress, to the salvation of sinners and the glory of God. When he first arrived at the island of Tanna, he had to start from scratch. He had to learn the language of the cannibals, which was hard considering the fact that they had no written letters. But through hard work Paton not only learned the language, he also but it in letters. In his autobiography John Paton tells about the trials he went through amongst the cannibals. He was constantly close to being killed, but always managed to escape. He explains that the only thing that kept him from losing his mind was his living prayer-life with the Lord. But the cannibals did not repent or forsake their idols of wood and stone, but instead became more and more furious over Paton that he finally by boat escaped by the skin of his teeth. That meant that years of hard work had not brought any conversions. After his escape he dicided to go back! But this time to a neighbouring island named Aniwa. And there, after hard work and after a special incident, everybody on the island repents and turns to God! When Paton was old he spoke with the president of the USA, trying to persuade him to prohibit the selling of alcohol to the islanders. He also visited Charles Spurgeouns home and made some very interesting remarks concerning George Muellers orphanges. Personally I must say, that the most impressive part of Patons autobiography is not the adventures amongst the cannibals; but his description of his father James, who in my point of view probably was one of the holiest, but unknown, men ever to walk the ground of Scotland. Shall the world ever see such men again? Or has the zeal of true religion now declined? O, dear friends, let us walk in the footsteps of such men as these, to the glory of God!