Tom Neale did what we all now and then dream of doing - go and live alone on a desert island. For years he planned, read, talked - until the great day when he was landed on his little kingdom, undismayed by the fact that he would have to struggle with the full strength of body and mind to survive. This is how he starts his story:

"I was fifty when I went to live alone on Suvarov, after thirty years of roaming the Pacific, and in this story I will try to describe my feelings, try to put into words what was, for me, the most remarkable and worthwhile experience of my whole life.
I chose to live in the Pacific Islands because life there moves at the sort of pace which you feel God must have had in mind originally when He made the sun to keep us warm and provided the fruits of the earth for the taking ... "

This book has become a South Seas classic and although Tom Neale is long gone - he died in 1977 and is buried in the cemetery opposite Rarotonga's airport - his memory lives on. Many Rarotongan residents have anecdotes or opinions of him and it seems that his book, which was ghost written, makes him out to be a much more reasonable fellow than he actually was. One person's opinion was that he was so cantankerous that an uninhabited island was the only place for him!

Thanks to Tom, the atoll is now one of the best known in the whole Cook Islands and yachties often call in to look in on Tom's room which is still furnished just as it was when he lived there. Today the island is populated only by a caretaker and his family.

Here are some comments by book reviewers:

"This endlessly fascinating book is Tom Neale's story of his life alone on Suvarov, a dream-life which he made come true. Apart from the sheer joy and drive of the narrative, it is absolutely required reading for the thousands who fancy doing the same. It is one of those books which is quite capable of leaving a mark on you for life." (THE BOOKMAN)

"Beautifully written ... moving, entertaining and exciting. Tom Neale is not a crank, a mystic, a hermit or slightly barmy. He just wanted to get the hell out, to have the satisfaction of fending for himself and proving he could do it. And, by God, he did. In every sense Mr. Neale is a man." (WOODROW WYATT, EVENING STANDARD)

"A delightful story, Cruscoesque in simplicity." (GUARDIAN)

Here's a map of the Cook Islands courtesy of lonely planet. Want to visit Suwarrow? Pacific Expeditions do go there occasionally. Here are some more images of Suwarrov. Go to amazon.com for a look at the book: An Island To Oneself Or you may read Tom Neale's story as online book. Here are some terrific Links to more Tom Neale websites. This is a link to a story of a recent visit to Suwarrov. And here are many more pictures of Tom Neale's Island. And, as they say, there's more!!! If you would like to live on a remote tropical island yourself, go to Pigeon Island And I recently visited another expatriate, Horst Berger, on his tiny island of Lifuka in Tonga. If all this is a little too far, come and visit us at Riverbend Cottage I'm off to Samoa in a short while. Read all about it.