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 many with the island's image as a secluded Eden and its connection to the mysterious and intriguing Bounty legend, traveled across the Pacific on a cargo ship and became one of the very few outsiders permitted to land on Pitcairn. Although the islanders initially seemed welcoming, they soon wove her into a web of decades-old disputes and thwarted desires.

The story of one woman's pursuit of an elusive dream, Serpent in Paradise is a compelling, sharply observed account of the darker side of Utopia.

"A memorable novelistic portrait of ordinary people living in extraordinary circumstances". -- Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity

"Reads with the momentum of a narrative proceeding at an increasing pace towards inevitable disaster. It mixes acute anthropology with historical exegesis and personal confession...Reading it is an uneasy experience". -- The Independent (London)