Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy (Michael Pembroke, Hardie Grant)

Arthur Phillip is best known to Australians as the first governor of New South Wales, a post he held for five years. History records him as progressive, inspired by Enlightenment thinking and holding a liberal attitude towards the Indigenous people he first encountered, the Eora people. In this elegant and finely written biography, judge and naturalist Michael Pembroke explores this central figure of Australian history in a much wider context. Arthur Phillip is both a portrait of the man and the times in which he was a key player. The second half of the 18th century, when Phillip’s naval career was in the ascendency, was a time of British economic expansion and good times, facilitated by imperial conquest and war. As a loyal British subject, Phillip engaged in and supported the many European wars fought by England. He also worked as a government spy, surveilling French activities. The final picture that emerges of Phillip is of a patriotic, brave soldier, but also a sensitive, thoughtful, even philosophic 18th-century man. Pembroke has written a superb biography and a carefully reconstructed life and times.

Chris Saliba is co-owner of North Melbourne Books