In a frontier society full of colourful characters in early nineteenth century New Zealand, Jacky Marmon, more commonly known as Cannibal Jack, was more colourful than most.
Jumping ship off the New Zealand coast, he first lived among Ngäpuhi at the Bay of Islands, where he acquired five wives and served his chief as a trader and white priest. Joining Hongi Hika's great Musket Wars campaigns against the Tamaki and Kaipara tribes, he claimed to have served as Hika's personal war tohunga. He survived to settle in the Hokianga from 1823 and was involved in Hone Heke's Flagstaff War of 1845.
In this biography of a wonderfully curious character, the author of the bestselling Pakeha Maori traces Marmon's life and times, drawing on his own knowledge and research as well as on Marmon's own – not always reliable – personal accounts.
Trevor Bentley was educated at the universities of Auckland and Waikato and has a special interest in researching, teaching and writing about the interaction of Maori and Pakeha in pre-Treaty New Zealand. He is the author of two previous books, both published by Penguin: Pakeha Maori (1999) and Captured by Maori (2004). Bentley is an adult education manager for four colleges in the South Waikato, as well as an inveterate surfer and traveller. He lives in Tauranga with his wife Helen.
