The Enchantment of the Long-haired Rat

‘A book of surprises, with one yarn after another about an amazing Australian mammal.’ * Tim Low *
‘A marvellous story about one of the world’s most enigmatic creatures.’ * Tim Flannery *
‘Part history, part field guide and part folktale, the more you read the more you realise that this bewitching creature is an allegory for Australia itself.’ * Guardian *
‘[A]s Bonyhady’s highly engaging new book eloquently demonstrates, the rat and its history offer a fascinating lens through which to examine the history of the Australian environment and the catastrophic human and environmental impact of European invasion…[a] fascinating and often profound book.’ * Sydney Morning Herald *
‘Bonyhady crafts his history through a forensic analysis of detailed sources’ * ABR *
‘[A] delightful exploration of the teeming lives and dramatic deaths of members of a generally overlooked Australian species…[A]n important book for our times.’ * Inside Story *
‘This story of a precious Australian mammal is a fascinating journey into Australian natural history.’ * Good Reading *
‘This book is environmental history writing at its best. Bonyhady’s fluent and compelling narrative couples the diversity of natural history with accounts of wide-ranging human action and thinking, to create a telling example of human/environment interaction.’ * Historical Records of Australian Science *
‘Unusual and matchless.’ * National Tribune *

Professor Tim Bonyhady is one of Australia’s foremost environmental and cultural historians. His many books include Images in Opposition: Australian Landscape Painting 1801-1890, Burke and Wills: From Melbourne to Myth, Places Worth Keeping: Conservationists, Politics and Law and award winning The Colonial Earth.

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