Tim Hurburgh’s Tall Poplars:Tales of Tasmania’s fabled River Derwent Valley provides a fascinating fresh take from the murkier days of Van Diemen’s Land through to today’s picturesque Apple Isle. Stories of extraordinary stoicism, heroism and entrepreneurship but, painfully also, violence and shocking betrayal. It is a Technicolor vision with images by Matt Sansom, of Tasmania and its Van Diemen’s umbra seen through the eyes of an author who lives there. As lifelong architect published poet and from a sailing family who arrived in Hobart in 1826, Tim’s perspectives told with heart and humour expose the fissures and folds of the Island’s exotic terrain. His words are replete with love, mild admonitions and episodic astonishment, sharing delight, shame and dumbfoundedness at his island home and the motley crew that rub shoulders around it.