A revised edition of Tom Neale’s memoir about his solitary life on the remote island of Suwarrow has been published, featuring a new chapter and epilogue written by his daughter, offering a fresh perspective on his experiences.

“An Island to Oneself”, penned by the late New Zealander Tom Neale, is a captivating memoir that chronicles his solitary life on the remote island of Suwarrow.

First published in 1966, the book tells the remarkable story of Neale’s 16 years alone on the island.

Billed as a South Seas classic, “An Island to Oneself” in this updated edition offers readers a fresh perspective through a new chapter and epilogue written by his daughter, Stella Neale.

The republished edition by HarperCollins was launched earlier this month and is available in bookstores in New Zealand and Australia.

Depending on shipping, the books are expected to arrive in Rarotonga next month and will be available for purchase at Bounty Bookshop in downtown Avarua.

Over the weekend, Stella signed and presented copies of the republished books to customers at the Rarotonga Sailing Club.

“I’m so excited it has been reprinted, so many people have asked,” says Stella.

“I think the story is so much of the Cook Islands history going back to the 1950s.”

According to Wikipedia, Tom Neale was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in November 1902. His family moved to Greymouth while he was still a baby, and then to Timaru when he was seven years old.

New Zealander Tom Neale, outside his cookhouse on Suwarrow Island, a remote atoll in the Cook Islands where he lived alone for 16 years. SUPPLIED/24101858

He joined the Royal New Zealand Navy as a young man, but at 18 was too old to become an apprentice seaman, and signed on as an apprentice engineer instead. For the next four years, Neale travelled through the Pacific Islands on Navy ships, before buying his way out of the Navy to have greater freedom to see the islands independently.

After a few months back in Timaru in 1928, Neale returned to the Pacific and settled in Moorea, Tahiti, where he lived until 1943, supporting himself with odd jobs and enjoying a private life. He was then offered a job as a relieving storekeeper in the Cook Islands, running small shops in various islands while their normal keepers were on leave. As storekeeper he was also an advisor to the local communities.

Neale met with author Robert Dean Frisbie in Rarotonga, and was entranced by his tales of the atoll of Suwarrow, where Frisbie had lived with his family. In 1945, Neale had the opportunity to visit Suwarrow briefly when a ship dropped in stores for the World War II coast-watchers living there. He decided that this was the place he wanted to live.

In October 1952 he had an opportunity to book a passage on a ship passing close to Suwarrow, uninhabited since the end of the war. The boat dropped him off with two cats and all the supplies he could scrape together on the islet of Anchorage, about a mile long and a few hundred feet wide.

Neale spent 16 years on the island over three stays. Between his first and second trips to Suwarrow, Neale married Sarah Marsters from Palmerston Island and they had two children, Arthur and Stella. Neale had another older son, John, from a previous relationship.

Neale passed away in Rarotonga in November 1977, just months after a crew of a passing yacht in Suwarrow discovered Neale suffering from stomach pain, and evacuated him.

Arthur lives on the remote island of Palmerston which has a population of between 20 – 30 people. He is the executive officer of its Island Government.

A retired nurse, Stella, is moving to Palmerston to live when passage becomes available since the island is only accessible by sea.