Serpent in Paradise

Lost in the surf of the South Pacific lies a speck of volcanic rock. Home to thirty-eight islanders—descendants of the Bounty mutineers—Pitcairn has no cars, no crime, no doctor, and no regular contact with the outside world. For two centuries, "Fletcher Christian's children," whose culture and language are a bizarre blend of Polynesian and eighteenth-century English, have lived out a unique social experiment.

Acclaimed British travel writer and journalist Dea Birkett, obsessed like man…