>>Lucy Irvine .... and her "husband" had themselves
>>deposited on a 'dessert island" near Australia for a
>>year. They were yuppies from England,

I always thought "nutcases" was a better description. <img src="images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

One problem they had was that they lost all of their fish hooks within a few months. (Not due to carelessness, but to broken lines - possibly exacerbated by poor technique?)

Irvine came very close to killing herself when she impulsively feasted on some green beans she found, without waiting to consult their manual of edible and poisonous plants to discover that the beans in question, while harmless after cooking, were deadly poisonous in their raw state. (With no radio = no way to call for help = no professional medical treatment, she was damn lucky to live through the ensuing ordeal.)

And then they both nearly died of thirst after the monsoons failed to arrive on schedule.

The biggest irony was that it was her "husband", Gerald Kingsland, who wanted to write a book about the experience, and she just went along as his companion; but she ended up becoming a best-selling author, whereas his writing career went pretty much nowhere. (By the time he got around to writing about the experience, her book had pretty much come and gone from the best-seller lists, IIRC.)