Downstream

hundreds of boats and
watched by thousands of
spectators, and there was no
law to stop them. I haven’t
even got started on all those
who came after them –
Annette Kellerman, John
Arthur Jarvis, Lily Smith and
Eileen Lee – when Martin
turns away from surveying
the river out of the patrol
boat’s window and asks: ‘The
Victorian era? Wasn’t human
life cheaper then?’