Dea Birkett

I enjoyed this book. The story of a woman who visited Pitcairn as a journalist, Utopias Elsewhere gives us a look inside and extremely insular community challnged by a long term decline in population and a culture that has tremendous mistrust of outsiders. Perhaps for good reason. I read this book before the revelations about pedophilia in the community, and found it interesting that this side of the society was so carefully kept from the author. I empathized with both the writer and the full time residents -- who surely are tired of being viewed as cultures in a test tube. A very good read about a place that doesn't have many windows into its soul.… (more)