Outcast: The Extraordinary Life and Death of Etienne Jean Brocher

Description

A soldier and a bigamist, a family man and a fraudster, Etienne Jean Brocher led an extraordinary life in 19th-century France, North Africa and New Zealand. Along the way he collected aliases, prison sentences, and enemies as he slipped from town to town, escaping debts and family duties. Ultimately, though, he faced the gallows in a double-murder trial that rocked New Zealand’s ‘dream society’.

Now his astonishing story – untold in book form – is revealed. Drawing on French military archives, family records, and newspaper reports from across colonial New Zealand, as well as Brocher’s own handwritten account, this absorbing biography untangles the complex trails Brocher left behind him in colonial towns and in the public imagination.

While he explores the complexities of Brocher’s character – including his shortcomings – Brian Stoddart lays bare the class prejudice and xenophobia that Brocher faced as an immigrant of ‘the wrong sort’ and raises serious questions over whether he received a fair trial. Dynamic and often surprising in its humour, this stunning biography makes a vital contribution to our understanding of how colonial New Zealand shaped its ideal society and what could happen when ‘outsiders’ didn’t fit the mould.

About the Author

Professor Brian Stoddart is an acclaimed writer on history, culture, and immigrant experience in New Zealand, Australia, and Asia. His biography A People’s Collector in the British Raj: Arthur Galetti explored the life of a maverick officer in the Indian civil service, as part of his broader work on nationalism in British India. Playing the Game: How Cricket Made Barbados explains the central role that sport played in shaping island society following the abolition of slavery. Brian has also written extensively on sporting nationalism, politics and media. A House in Damascus: Before the Fall chronicles his time working in Syria and living in the Old City immediately before the war began in 2011.

Brian’s screenwriting has won awards in the United Kingdom, Canada, India and Australia, and his recent credits include Roads Old and New, which explores the journeys of South-Asian migrants to Australia. Brian is also an author of crime fiction and has been longlisted in the Ngaio Marsh Awards for his Le Fanu series of crime novels.

Earning his first degree from the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), Brian led a distinguished academic career in Australia and internationally, serving finally as Vice-Chancellor at La Trobe University in Melbourne. He now works as an international consultant on higher education – focused on the Middle East and South-East Asia.

Brian has two adult daughters and lives with his partner, Sandi, in Melbourne.