Craig Cormick is an award-winning, Canberra based author and science communicator, with a special interest in history. He has lived in Iceland and Finland and has travelled to Antarctica four times – though he really prefers the tropics. He has written over 30 books for adults and children and he enjoys messing with history just about as much as history enjoys messing with him.

The What If Histories of Australia imagines a very different history of Australia, where the unexpected happens in unexpected ways. Starting by defining the real histories, the book then looks at possible paths of different settlements that history could have taken.

Beautifully illustrated by Cheri Hughes, the first book What if histories book, Colonial Settlement - France v Britain will get kids thinking what if.... history had taken a different turn?? A great way to learn history but also to promote imagination.

• What if Captain Cook’s ship sank when it hit the Great Barrier Reef in 1770?
• And what if the French settled Australia first? And what if King Louis 16th and Napoleon both ended up here, fighting over who was the rightful ruler in exile?
• And then the British arrived… A very different and amusing history of Australia, where the unexpected happens in unexpected ways.

An amusing look at the alternative paths that Australian history might have taken. 

The next one What if histories: Gold Rush - Going Gold Crazy is due out in September.

Gold Fever is what makes ordinary people act like completely crazy people .  And there are plenty of examples of that in this book!  We all know that gold makes people act a bit crazy – but imagine just how crazy things would be if the 19th Century Australian colonies were all run by different countries. The French in modern day Victoria and British in modern day New South Wales would be busy coming up with crazy plans to steal each other’s gold. And Indigenous people, diggers and bushrangers would have their own plans as to who should get the gold. As would a peculiar bushranger in armour, with plans to start a new Irish republic.   A very different and amusing history of Australia, where the unexpected happens in unexpected ways.