Forty South Tasmania - Issue 110

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FROM THE EDITOR: I would like to make this issue of Forty South Tasmania a celebration of two things: Tasmania and Don Defenderfer.

Don Defenderfer is a prolific writer. Among many other achievements, his writing has been published in three volumes of poetry and two further volumes of collected essays and poems, and his work has appeared in newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times and The Australian. His elegant, informed and intelligent reflections on life, environment and things Tasmanian are regularly featured, also, in this magazine, and it is with no apology that, in this issue, I offer you three more short literary masterpieces by this most gracious writer.

It is probably unfair to say that true appreciation of Tasmania means true understanding of that somewhat intangible thing, island life. Clean air, relaxed lifestyle, accessibility to wilderness and epicurean excellence are, individually or collectively, more than enough to attract and retain Tasmanians. But we often hear about “island life” being a factor, in both the physical and philosophically sense, in the Tasmanian experience. One way, perhaps, to appreciate this, is to have a long acquaintance with two islands. Mark Heyward has done just that.