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'The Coral Island'

This section of the walk is quite a long diversion but leads to the only

English Heritage plaque in this area.

 

  • Walk along London Road to the right hand turning into Mount Park Avenue...

 

  • Turn left into Mount Park Road….  

 

  • Continue past St Dominic’s College until you come to a large Victorian villa on your left named Duneaves...   ///chose.placed.ritual

 

The English Heritage plaque marks the home of the Victorian writer Robert Michael Ballantyne born in Edinburgh in 1825. He was part of a famous family of printers and publishers. 

 

At 16 he went to Canada and was six years in the Hudson's Bay Company's  service. Returning to Scotland in 1847, his first book was published the following year, ‘Hudson's Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America’. 

 

For some time he was employed by Messrs Constable, the publishers, but in 1856 he gave up business to become a full-time author, beginning the series of adventure stories for the young with which his name is always associated. 

 

The Coral Island is his most famous book in which fifteen-year-old Ralph, mischievous young Peterkin and clever, brave Jack are shipwrecked on a coral reef with only a telescope and a broken pocketknife between them. At first the island seems a paradise, with its plentiful foods and wealth of natural wonders. But then a party of cannibals arrives and after that a pirate ship… Despite its high moral tone, or perhaps because of it, this story has never been out of print since it was first published in 1857.

 

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