The Last Whale is a lively account of the protest action that brought an end to whaling in Australia in the 1970s. Centred on the town of Albany, home to the last whaling station in the English-speaking world, it provides an insight into the experiences and motivations of both the whalers and the activists pitted against them. Chris Pash portrays the campaign— the first direct Greenpeace action in Australia-as a tale of high drama in the Southern Ocean, with protesters risking their lives in little rubber dinghies as they attempt to obstruct the whaling vessels. His narrative style is reasonably effective as he draws on interviews and diary entries to get inside the heads of the key players involved and provide a sense of immediacy to these events of 30 years ago. With whaling such an emotionally charged issue, Pash should be commended for his objective and balanced approach, devoting just as much time to the stories of individual whalers and what the industry meant to them and the town of Albany, as he does to the activists. Endorsed by Greenpeace International, The Last Whale is an accessible and rather timely piece of recent social and political history.

Sally Denmead is a freelance reviewer who has worked in publishing and as a bookseller

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