Cook, John with Jon Bauer: The Last Lighthouse Keeper: A Memoir

John Cook with Jon Bauer

The Last Lighthouse Keeper: A Memoir, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2020; electronic version available

In Tasmania, John Cook is known as ‘The Keeper of the Flame’. As one of Australia’s longest-serving lighthouse keepers, John spent 26 years tending Tasmania’s well-known kerosene ‘lights’ at Tasman Island, Bruny Island, Eddystone Point and Maatsuyker Island.

From sleepless nights keeping the lights alive, battling the wind and sea as they ripped at gutters and flooded stores, raising a joey, tending sheep and keeping ducks and chickens, the life of a keeper was one of unexpected joy and heartbreak. But for John, nothing was more heartbreaking than the introduction of electric lights, and the lighthouses that were left empty forever. (blurb)

The book is reviewed for Honest History by Margaret Pender. Review in Newcastle Herald. Podcast on 6PR Perth.

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