Zed
Restless Men is an appropriate title for this colourful adventure by, in my opinion anyway, one of the world's best travel writers.
Chapter 1. South Coast of Queensland.
Pinney is on a Prawn trawler in Moreton Bay making wages along with other restless men whose work is hard toil for a meagre living while facing the danger of hauling up dumped WW2 ordinance in their nets. Once back in Doboy Creek they spend their times drinking, womanising and complaining about the authorities. Being a resident of Brisbane I learnt a couple of things from our past. Doboy Creek is now Bulimba Creek. I never knew that.
Chapter 2. Brisbane.
We find Pinney catching rats! The sub heading Twenty Thousand Rats seemed a bit over the top to me but after reading this chapter but I researched up with a read of this item.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-11/rat-catching-brisbane-fox-terrier/9245388
On the theme of leaning something new Brisbane had serious plague outbreak in 1921.
https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/black-death-queensland
Chapter 3. Capricorn.
While starting this chapter my wife was chatting to her 89 year old father who was a station master in the Capricorn district of Queensland for an eternity. “Ask him if he knew Jurema Siding” I ask. Sure did and proceeded to name every siding from there out to Emerald. Pinney was now at Jurema Siding doing fettling work, described to me by my father in law as “hard yakka” This chapter certainly explains that. There was many a restless man doing this back breaking work and many a restless man making a break for it after having enough.
Chapter 4. Rockhampton.
Pinney has made a break for it and stays at a “Mecca of vagrants” in this central Queensland city. A place for “the needy and the derelict” to get a good nights feed and sleep and exchange their tales of woe.
Chapter 5. Whitsunday Passage.
Philosophising in said Passage.
“Love thy neighbour” Snow went on thoughtfully. “It's a fine precept, but its not practical. There's still too much primeval slime. Have you ever thought how difficult it would be to love, sincerely and selflessly, the first three strangers you see on a Tuesday afternoon? It'd be a damn site more practical to say, Understand they neighbour”
Chapter 6. Hayman Island.
Boys meet girls in a tropical paradise. Light hearted adventures in a resort as the staff have a great time but the lure of other adventures is too alluring for Pinney and the call of the north beckons.
Chapter 7. Northern Territory.
Pinney is now props assistant on the making of an episode from Adventure Unlimited called in the book The Crocodile Hunter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Unlimited#Episode_5%E2%80%93%22Crocodile%22
The comment in the wiki by actor Gwen Plumb is interesting in that she says the episode was made in 1961. If this book is in chronological order then according to Pinney the episode was made in 63 as he had earlier discussed a Qld State election that was held 1 June 1963. Pinney writes that there was not a crocodile to be found when they were in Kakadu and that the one flown in as discussed by Gwen Plumb could not be anesthetised as the vet flown in by Darwin had no idea what to do. The crew went onto to record the next episode of the series called The Buffalo Hunter and then when that ended he was offered a free trip back to Sydney as part of the crew. Another (non existent) crew beckoned and he refused.
Chapter 8. Normanton.
Further philosophising but while crocodile hunting.
One evening, as we sat beside a fire, Joe asked, “How did you find London, when you were there?” He had come from London fifteen years before, but gave no hint of wishing to return. “I was disillusioned” “Oh? You didn't like it?”“On the contrary. I went there with the usual Aussie illusions – that Pommies were about as cordial as thorn hedges, sneered at the colonials, lived on crumpets and Kipling, and talked with a sort of effeminate historical nostalgia. And I suddenly found how friendly London was, and loved it”He fiddled with the carbide lamp, causing it to hiss and bubble with escaping gas. “Well, the opposite with me. I'd heard all about the terrific hospitality of Australia's outback. And I've been outback for most of fifteen years, and I'm damned if I found it”
Chapter 9. Townsville.
The brutality of the abattoir exposed and it is not for the faint hearted be that for man or beast.
Chapter 10. Mackay.
Hunting sharks for the good of the surfer and swimmer? “It's a useless waste of time” says the bloke from the government. But hey! a few deaths over a hundred years and the public are worried. When the public are worried what's a few wasted sharks. This discussion/debate still goes on today. Man fears sharks but gives no thought to his own position as the apex predator. Pinney has seen too much blood and decides to head south.
There is a bit of restlessness in all of us at times. I suppose that is the attraction of travel writing and why some such as Peter Pinney, who has the ability to tell a good yarn without literary pretentions, is so attractive. He can tell his tale of restlessness travel in a way that is easy to read, be comprehensible to those that may not know the meaning of the big words. He is also of another era. This is in the early 60's and his telling of his time as a Brisbane rat catcher gives insight into what was a less sophisticated profession than it now is. It also brings back to me that health, safety and hygiene rules and regulations of the past were rather lax. His time in Capricornia had me chatting to my father-in-law. He was a station master in a central Qld cattle siding and the day he retired the Qld railway shut the station down. When my wife took me to see the small town of her youth the railway was something that just passed through without stopping. Back then it was part of the very essence of the community. It is reflections such as these that make this book such a worth while read to anyone from Queensland and knows the areas covered in each chapter.
Recommended to any that think what might have been and wonder where their restlessness would have taken them.
This was far better than I expected. I really thought that the hype may have been because of the very good film, but I have to admit that this one grabbed me and smacked me around the head. I have read 3 books related to drug culture in my time here on Goodreads. This and Praise by Australian author Andrew McGahan have a realism that suits the circumstances of their time and place. My strong dislike for the hardly readable Naked Lunch was the reason I took this on, there had to be something better than stream of consciousness cut-and-paste words that the author admitted to not even remembering writing. This was certainly it.
With over 167,600 rating and 3,000 reviews there is little I can add.
Choose this book.
The idea of reading history is to hopefully learn from one's curiosity on the subject at hand, and I was lucky to learn about the Romantic Generation in the Age of wonder.
Author Richard Holmes has dominated the telling of this story with the lives of outstanding astronomer William Herschell, Humphry Davy of the miner's lamp fame and to a lesser degree Sir Joseph Banks, famous for his journey to Tahiti in 1769 and a long life as president of the Royal Society. A few others come into the story told, such as African explorer Mungo Park, Herschel's incredibly talented younger sister Caroline and Mary Shelley.
Interweaving each of the individuals mentioned above into an Age of Wonder narrative is on paper a grand idea and could be perfect for anyone that enjoys popular history. The first chapter, on Banks, was magnificent and should have set the tone. Unfortunately, at about the halfway point I thought the author became bogged down by spending far too much time on the literacy pretensions of some protagonists and as time went on I began to wonder the point of the short Mungo Park chapter and with that the one on Mary Shelly.
Be that as it may this is a good read and will have been enjoyed by many, it just may not be my style of delivery. The footnote, end notes, the bibliography and the plates are excellent. Holmes is a very good writer at his best and as I said above I learnt a lot. In fact, I am curious for more. One can't want much more than that, can they?
Recommended to anyone that likes popular history.
This isn't how it is meant to be. I awake without the alarm, it is dark and it is raining heavily. I wander downstairs and make coffee and decide to read a few reviews and then get a few pages in of my present book before heading on the insufferable freeway to go to work. Thunder starts and I check the radar. There is rain aplenty.
I sip the coffee and the first review is of this short story. It seems promising, so I hit the link offered and read along with the audio. I have never done that before, I think to myself.
About 40 minutes later, a clap of thunder roars over head as I read/listen to the last line. Timing is everything, I suppose. My coffee has gone cold. It is still raining.
Merged review:
This isn't how it is meant to be. I awake without the alarm, it is dark and it is raining heavily. I wander downstairs and make coffee and decide to read a few reviews and then get a few pages in of my present book before heading on the insufferable freeway to go to work. Thunder starts and I check the radar. There is rain aplenty.
I sip the coffee and the first review is of this short story. It seems promising, so I hit the link offered and read along with the audio. I have never done that before, I think to myself.
About 40 minutes later, a clap of thunder roars over head as I read/listen to the last line. Timing is everything, I suppose. My coffee has gone cold. It is still raining.
I did research this famous piece of literature prior to reading. I understood that I was in for a ride.
But..........
I did not find it interesting or well written or witty. It did not offend me or delight me. It just seemed like a bunch of loony rantings of a drug addict as it was meant to be. It took all of my willpower to finish it.
So be it I suppose. Onwards and upwards.
Based on my thoughts on having read this book the attempt to protect individuals against genocide, as one example, via international law is very much a modern idea that has taken specific form since the holocaust. I will also make comment that these conventions are not as well-supported in terms of international cooperation as they might be, such are the major powers reluctance at times to agree on what principles a court structure should take. Also in the democratic west, changes of government seemingly bring changes of attitude to policy.
My copy was from 2008 and things may well have moved on since Geoffrey Robinson wrote this very good book. Unfortunately, this can be a subject that fatigues one too easily. Man's inhumanity to his fellow man never ceases to amaze.
A long and very dry read but worthwhile and recommended to anyone that has an interest in the subject of crimes against humanity.
Many many years back I sat on my parent's veranda and my father said to me, “look a Dollar Bird” “A what?” I said. He grabbed a bird guide he had recently purchased and showed me a drawing. I have to admit I was intrigued and with that began an interest in our feathers friends. I got a pair of binoculars, a couple of field guides and used them as an addition to my journeys in life. I also discovered that a then work colleague I was on good terms with was a bit of an amateur ornithologist. When time permitted I would go on the occasional drive with him and even to the local Ornithological Society meetings. Back then I read a fair bit of literature on the subject of birds, but have to admit to not being as deeply interested in several years now. Life changes I suppose. As do our interests.
With that I thought that I had better read this natural history as it had been sitting on the shelf since I purchased it in 2017 with the thought that I might like to read something that was of recent vintage on a subject I was once very keen on. To say I am glad I did would be an understatement. Author Tim Low has written a very readable book that covers Australian/New Guinean bird life and its place in the scheme of things. So readable, I found this very difficult to put down and resented having to do other chores. Each chapter had me reading deep about many subjects on the Australian/New Guinean birdlife that I had not really given much thought to previously. Evolution, DNA and how, as the title suggests, song in birdlife began. Why the birdlife I see on a daily basis is loud and aggressive. Why fire is such an important facet to various aspects of not only plant life but the birds that rely on such plants, and much more.
There are twelve chapters in all that cover 318 pages of the text and excellent notes, a superb bibliography and an index that takes this out to a further 405 pages. No chapter is wasted.
Obviously there was discussion on evolution and DNA, just for example, that were going to be new to me but when reading the more empirical observations by Tim Low I found myself nodding as I thought about the raucous noise I hear from Rainbow Lorikeet roosts I walk past, how many times I have been attacked by Noisy Minors, Australian Magpies and Pied Butcherbirds over the years, that the average person is hardly aware of their own birdlife let alone understand its impact on our daily life.
This review does not do this book justice. I can hardly imagine anyone with an interest in the subject of Australian birdlife not learning from or enjoying this masterful natural history.
Highly recommended.
The trials and tribulations of great expectations by the reader.
I personally thought that Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell as good a fantasy as I had ever read. I also came to it rather late so it is in my recent reading memory. With that I was very keen to read Piranesi.
As I type these words, Piranesi has nearly 77,000 ratings at 4.29 on this here Goodreads. It smashes the above-mentioned Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell out of the park in popularity. I wonder why. It is a good read and I enjoyed it but in my opinion it is not even in the same league for depth of writing and storytelling.
It is pointless me even attempting to explain the story that is Piranesi. After that many reviews, if anyone gets this far with what I have to say, they have either read it or at least read a synopsis elsewhere. The story is not as complex as I thought it might be in the end. The first half came across to me as a dream sequence with some ham fisted dialogue between the two main characters. That may say more about me than anything. Why? It was not hamfisted and served a purpose to the final half of the tale told. That I suppose says stick with reading if one is unsure where it is going.
In the end though, I also think I may have made an error in reading this a little too quickly after another fantasy that I adored. The Mules Foal by Fontini Epanomitis is obscure and was a chance find for free in a neighbourhood street library. I paid top dollar for Piranesi. As enjoyable as Piranesi is the obscure madness of the unknown novel was far more interesting in concept and delivery. Maybe if I had read Piranesi first I may have felt different? Also, why does a work such as The Mules Foal just become such an obscure footnote when it is conceptually so much stronger than many others in its genre? Trials and tribulations indeed.
Be that as it may, I do recommend Piranesi to anyone that likes Fantasy. It is well written, the descriptive element is wonderful, and it does tie a good story together in the end.
A Mules Foal is an impossible birth.
So what is this impossible birth about? The inhabitants of three houses in a Greek Village, their lives and their interactions with each other, with their fellow villagers and various others who at times pass through. Specific reference must be made to the child born a gorilla, he is a very important character in village life.
Lots and lots of weird things happen in this absurdist journey. That journey is told by an ageing prostitute who runs the local brothel. Sounds simple? Not the way this story is told. Men turn into woman and back again. One woman turns into a bear to eat her mother-in-law. Weird events keep on happening. Is this fantasy and/or magic realism or just a figment of the imagination of the narrator? I have no idea, but I was enthralled from the beginning to the end.
Typical of these type of absurdist style fantasies, there is going to be a readership that either loves it and another that just don't get it and moves on. Me? I loved it. I just got involved and laughed at the absurdity of it all. But was it absurd?
First published in 1993, from what I can see the author, Fontini Epanomitis, has not written another book since. It is said that everyone has one novel in them, and maybe this was it. Fontini wrote that the “Words borrowed from family and friends I return with thanks” A very sparse wiki says that her parents were migrants to Perth Australia from Northern Greece where Fontini grew up except for a year spent on her relative's Greek farm when she was twelve. Maybe that was the point, all those tall tales and gossip told by families has this book made.
Recommended to those that like it, odd, illogical, weird and humorous.
There is no doubt in my mind that this is top of the shelf travel/adventure narrative. Thesiger could arguably be one of the last great explorers that this ever smaller world has seen. His journeys into the unmapped areas of the Empty Quarters of the Arabian peninsula are told in this well written book that must surely be a must for anyone that is attracted to any kind of travel writing. The writing is sparse but descriptive as he tells a tale of hardship by both himself and his Bedu (Bedouin) companions. Hardship comes in all shapes and forms, be it hunger and thirst or his struggles to make it known to hostile tribes that he was there to explore and not proselytise.
It took a recent trip to visit the edge of Australian desert country for me to understand that there is a deep beauty in these so called desolate lands and with that trip in my recent memories Thesiger's descriptions of the various landscape he crossed and personally explored made his writings compelling. Add to that his deep respect for and descriptions of his travelling companions and their lifestyle along with some history this is a must read for anyone that likes travel readings.
Thesiger's travels took place in the late 1940's, pre oil boom. Places such as Abu Dhabi are but small towns of a couple of thousand people. He does notice and comment on the change of life that is beginning to take place and is not impressed.
“I marvelled that Arabs should wish to ape our ways”
“.....I was averse to all oil companies, dreading the changes and disintegration of society which they inevitably caused”
“I realised even then that speed and ease of mechanical transport must rob the world of all diversity”
A big thanks to my great friend Gordon who gifted me this book on my recent visit to his wonderful part of the world. You know me well mate.
Highly recommended to any one who has an interest in travel and exploration.
I was reading an interview with Estelle, the wife of the outstanding Australian travel writer Peter Pinney. Pinney had also written an excellent fictional trilogy that was based on his time fighting the Japanese in New Guinea and Bougainville in the 2nd World War. Estelle mentioned in the interview, linked below, that Pinney liked Tom Hungerford's book The Ridge and the River that was published in 1952. This was published many years prior to Pinney's trilogy. I was fortunate to have a copy so thought it an opportune time to read Hungerfords novel with Pinney's writings fresh in my mind.
https://www.readersvoice.com/interviews/2004/04/estelle-pinney-talks-about-her-novels-and-peter-pinney-page-2/
The interview states that Pinney and Hungerford had fought alongside each other. It shows via the very similar portrayals of the characters in both of their writings.
Hungerford's writing is also as raw as Pinney's in its presentation of the soldier's characteristics and their attitudes to both officers and those of other races; the inherent language of racism is very notable and plays a large part in the narrative. The notable difference between the writers is that Pinney wrote in the first person where as Hungerford is a third person narrative, hence his use of racial terminology in the general prose I found rather confronting at times.
The story itself is of a new green officer having to make amends to his new battle hardened troops who have little respect for him after a very poor start to his career. He leads them on patrol and a contact is made with the Japanese enemy and there are casualties. The account is then heavily based on what happens after, with the interaction between each of the characters being prominent.
On what I have read of Pinney and what he wrote about his experiences, this book seems to also be based on the similar circumstances of the author. The writing leaves little to the imagination in terms of the attitudes of the foot soldiers towards their fellow man and the events they confront. It is at times an extremely powerful portrait of the average soldier.
The Ridge and the River won the 1952 Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, but I do wonder if it would even get nominated nowadays. The racist terminology used in the narration, not just the everyday speaking of the soldiers, I would have thought could not be acceptable to the judging panel, let alone get a publishing house to even accept the manuscript without some severe changes. Does that make it a poor book? In my opinion no as it is a very important and significant piece of Australian literature.
Recommended to those that have an interest in Australian WW2 literature.
In anticipation of the film that is to be released later this year, 2021 for anyone that bothers to read this in many a year's time, I have reread Dune! A reread of any kind this late in my life is a rarity.
How did it go? Wonderful.
In my youth, I considered it a masterpiece in its field. Sci Fi just did not come much better back in the day. (1976 is back in the day, I was 16.) I was so impressed, I think I may have read it a dozen times in as many years.
That was then. So with a read again after all these decades, the fact of the matter is that into my fast approaching dotage it is still a masterpiece in its field.
By goodness, this film had better be good.
I will admit to reading this because of the present pandemic that is Covid19. Was it worth the read? Yes. I learnt a lot but do realise that it is outdated in parts, being released in 1996. The chapter on AIDS was definitely way past it's used by date, as advances in that area are even noted by a complete science duffer such as me.
Be that as it may, my eyes were opened to just how good we have it nowadays with medical advancement that this modern plague is so easily contained compared to the past.
Recommend to those with an interest in the history of lurgies.
I. Mozambique. Portuguese Prison.
Pinney arrives with travel companion Chickenhawk. Pinney is keen to travel to Rhodesia. Chickenhawk is not so keen. They departed friends but Pinney wrote that there was no way of knowing what became of him.
II. Rhodesia. The Tides of Happenchance.
“What was it I had said to Chickenhawk two months ago, or more? Something of the rigours of travel souring wine and women; and here I was on the way to anywhere with a women at my side. I glanced at her, walking jauntily beside me with an independent air, and chuckled”
III. Barotseland. Kings, Lions, and Princes.
A belligerent Afrikaner is unhappy with the travellers. He suspects them of being English. “Overmasehazewindhoornmolenpestpokken” says one of the travellers to the “old fool”
IV. Angola. “Butterflies are poisoned, and birds have lost their wings”
“Here in Luanda a journalist discovered us fishing on the waterfront, surrounded by citizens and heckled by police; and in return for some small story he became our host. Fernando was a long suffering Protestant to whom the Catholic colony of Angola appeared as a maelstrom of political and theocratic heresies betraying the land to the incestuous domination of Mother Portugal, and he was anxious lest two strangers should rush headlong into conflict with arbitrary idolatry and cant.”
V. Cabinda. Virgins For Sale.
Pinney is outraged at a local custom of selling virgins. He mused that the Mayombes loved their children but would then subject them to such a fate as selling them.
VI. French Equatorial Africa. Police, Swamps, and Witch-doctors.
“It was a saturated coast of brimming swamps and swollen streams where white man never went and natives lived in touch with the early death. It was, too, a land of strange contrasts, a devils wilderness of jungle flats and tidal creeks ribbed with occasional features of firm and fertile land reaching from the Crystal Mountains to the sea, so that one sometimes rose from lowland slough on almost imperceptible slopes with villages and gardens. It was a land half given to the sea and hammered by sudden rains, shunned alike by man and beast during monsoon season”
VII. Spanish Guinea. Forbidden Frontier.
Pinney tells a barman that he is in Africa to meet Africans. He was far from convinced as most whites were there for other purposes. Nothing said could convince him. The barmans confidence was required if the journey was to prosper. The plan was a little contraband to do business across the border.
VIII. Cameroons. The Village of the Living Dead.
“The village of lepers was a silent rabble of neglected huts hiding among a grove of squat oil-palms and tall wine-palms; one hundred and twenty five lepers lived in forty little hutches of bark and thatch. Men and women were sitting on the thresholds of huts, or lying in the morning sun as we approached. Only one man was active, and he was adzing a wooden bowl from a soft white block of wood: but when they saw us they began eagerly dragging themselves along the ground to greet us. Some could walk upright, some crawled on hands and knees of flopped sideways along the ground like stricken birds, mewing and whining.”
IX. Nigeria. Prophets of the Apocalypse.
Plenty of partying, food, drink and a parting of the way. Antelope stew and chicken and rice and chilli, any palm-wine along with your goats head? Beer will do.
X. Togoland. “Vraiment, monsieur, it is gold...”
“The Superintendent of police was a handsome Englishman with keen green eyes and briskly formal manner; he was called McCabe. It was almost 5 o'clock. He glanced briefly at the passport, stamped ‘Seen on Arrival' in the first space he found and said ‘I wondered who the devil was tramping along the road. Care for a spot of tea? Come home and meet my wife....'”
XI. Gold Coast. City of Charlatans.
Mammy-wagon stakes with such entries as Special Quiet Boy, My Bones Are Vexed, Meet Me In St Louis, and Psalm 69 Line 4. Pinney gets to ride in the “...undefeated challenger” into the Ashanti city of Kumasi.
XII. Ivory Coast. The Arab Horse-thief from Khartoum.
“”Have you ever been to Liberia?' I asked. ‘No. But I have met Mandingo traders who have been there: and it is worse than this place'”
XIII. Liberia. Leopards are Innocent.
Pinney gets to meet the President. He talks the President into financing a book on Liberian legends.
Someone is not that keen.
https://www.amazon.com/Legends-Liberia-Pinney-Peter/dp/1173143289
XIV. Sahara. Escape from Paradise.
“.....the road to Anywhere”
Outstanding.
Highly recommended to all who wish to be on the road to anywhere.
Bread and circuses. Or in the case of this story “.....the same old circus served up with stale bread.”
Science Fiction that was released in 1976 The Mind Riders is written as a first person narrative. Ryan Hart, a cynical boxer is bought out of retirement to fight a long standing champion and with it we see the world through his thoughts. He is bitter towards the chew them up and spit them out corporate world that forced him out of his given sport as he did not fit the mold of hero or villain.
“Commercials live on the naïveté even more than plastic drama. It takes some simplicity of the mod to be able to generate wild enthusiasm over some bland crud. It takes a kid who needs to feel good- can't get a day through without it.
The people know it fake even when it's on course. They know the sun-bronzed Apollo poncing about the beach is being puppeted by a bored handler while some kid radiates his glamour. But if its good, if it feels right, they play the game. They go out and buy the crud. They buy the plastic drama too.”
Boxing is now virtual reality. Each boxer no longer has to take real punches but hooks up to a simulation unit. In this future the boxer feels the pain and can actually die psychologically. The commercial attraction is that the audience can also hook in to one or the other boxer and ride their mind as they go through the agony of both pain and the psychology of the fight in process. Of course the elation or despair of winning or losing is the ultimate attraction. Those millions who hook in via an E-link are described as vamps, an excellent metaphor for blood sucking masses and does the corporate overlord, Network, lap this up.
Hart may not like “the prerogatives of pure wealth” to be able to force him into making a comeback but he himself is aware that he is caught up with a modern “feudalism as a social system....” by those that have the money to make him do it. He actually admires Network in a cynical way.
“Somebody has to make the masses believe that tomorrow it is all going to be new, unexpected , exciting” “You have to admire the technique. The sun never sets on Networks Empire”
A few themes come through this short book. Corporate greed, control of the individual and the masses, psychosis of the plutocracy, the need to win at all costs. The characters do lack any kind of warmth. They were all part of the act, the daily drama that is sport that we live via our TV's, in this case via virtual reality. Maybe that coldness is the point. Is it a good book? Yes but with much Science Fiction writing it is of it times. For all the forward thought of the population at large being mentally plugged into the thought process of sportsmen it is very dated in parts and as mentioned there is a coldness of character that may or may not appeal to some.
Recommended to those that may want a short Sci Fi read to while away the hours.
Yamada Nagamasa was an early 17th Century Japanese merchant soldier who has at various times been a folk hero to the Japanese. His popularity hit peak in Japan as recently as WW2 with text books published by the education department claiming he was “....filled to the brim with courage and honesty.” Mostly unknown in the English-speaking world his life and times are well told in this excellent monogram. Both primary and secondary sources are extensively researched and along with his cultural impact via film, books etc author Cesare Polenghi has written a compelling picture from little evidence extant. The endnotes are excellent and the bibliography has plenty for anyone with a thirst for further knowledge on this very niche subject.
Typical of these style monograms a knowledgeable overview of events helps but that should not stop anyone with little to no knowledge on 17th Century Siam and Japan not making historical discoveries of events and people they may never have heard of. I had no idea that Ayutthaya was once the capital of Thailand or that it was eventually razed to the ground in one of several wars between Thailand and Burma.
In truth there is little that can be written with any certainty about Yamada Nagamasa other than he was the leader of a large Japanese trading village in Ayutthaya that may have consisted of many who had left their homelands after the end of the civil wars of the Sengoku Period. Trade to the homeland was lucrative for both Siam and Japan. This came crashing down with the death of the King, Song Tham in 1628. His heirs were assassinated by eventual king Prasat Thong and with that many of the nobility close to the dead king. Yamada Nagamasa was not to survive these changes and was thought to have eventually been poisoned. Yamada Nagamasa was an important link to the homeland so this event caused a breakdown with the Shogunate. There was to be no contact between either nation for about 250 after.
This is an exceptional book and highly recommended to anyone with a liking of micro history.
A very competent chronology of women's travel writing is presented by Virago. Typically of books such as these some excepts hold the attention better than others as there is something for everyone or anyone interested in the diverse but seemingly niche travel writings of women through the ages.
First published in 1994 and edited by Mary Morris I was a little slow to take in comments she made in her Introduction. On rereading, after finishing the last except proper, she at one point writes “Women, I feel, move through the world differently than men. The constraint's and perils, the perceptions and complex emotions women journey with are different than men. The fear of rape for example....” “....or just crossing the street at night, most dramatically effects the way they move around the world.” Further examples were given and with that the editor has a point. The more I thought about what I had read the more I realised that many of the excerpts did indeed include the writer letting the reader know their fears in certain situations. My lack of thoughtfulness on this subject on my read through of this compendium does me no favours.
The Introduction also made comment that this was a collection that looked to show past and recent examples of feminist literature. I had to admit that as a male reader I also felt bereft of understanding this when reading through but gained an understanding when reading the Intro after.
I did find myself more attracted to the later day writers than the early years, I have to admit, but I am unable to give a reason why. Maybe there was less writing on their surrounds and more sophisticated commentary on their happenings? I don't know and I feel ham-fisted trying to explain it. An example is that is an excerpt from Annie Dillard's book A stone to Talk that blew me away with the brilliance of the prose and observation. A few earlier writers just plodded along but that is probably unfair on my part. Just maybe I should have taken more notice of that introduction.
Be that as it may, as inarticulate as my musings are, this is a good book for those who may have an interest in women's travel writing over the ages. Recommended to those with that interest.
I once was recommended an excellent book by a father at a kids party.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1917853058?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
A few years on the kids had another party and the parents got to chat again. The dad who had talked books to me previous was keen for more chat and so was I. This time he recommended this one.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is one of the best thematic books I have ever read. Narrated in the first person by the women of the family the themes challenged my reading senses. Colonialism and its effects, post traumatic distress disorder that leads to guilt and religious mania, humanistic awakenings, feminism, ecology and consumerism. There is no doubt better minds than mine will note further themes such is the depth of ideas. It can be very difficult to write anything new about a book that has over 670,000 reviews and is rated so highly so all I can do is recommend it to those that are looking for a book to challenge them.
Long may kids parties happen and long may the attending dads recommend me such thoughtful readings.
Whenever I told people I lived on my yacht I knew I was going to have to unravel their assumptions. They thought I was rich.
Thus said author Mari Rhydwen at the very beginning of this book. Mari and her husband Allan were not yachties, but sold up all their belongings to buy a boat they called White Cloud. Starting out from Fremantle, Western Australia they ended up in Africa and then came back again after several years of very slow travel.
Mari has written a thoughtful book about their journey and with it observed the locals at the places they made visit. She also made comment on the various yachties that they met along the way, not always with positivity it must be said. She also learnt a lot about herself.
Do mountaineers suffer vertigo and do those that suffer claustrophobia take up caving? she asked at one point, because it seems that some who suffered seasickness took up yachting with yachting being “....A silly fantasy that perhaps...” can aid those that suffered seasickness and then “....you escape the drudgery of what passes for normal life.”
Slow Travel was first published in 2004 when Mari was, and still is today, a linguist and expert in Aboriginal languages. She was also a practising Zen Buddhist. It shows in the writing. Her tales of their journey is interspersed with lots of commentary as to the ‘whys and wherefores' and also with her opinions that made for very interesting reading. There is also a fair bit of humour in her prose. “As we approached the shore I realised that the numerous partially submerged boulders we were trying to dodge were moving. They were not rocks but copulating couples. We had gate crashed a turtle orgy”
Sailing out of Fremantle they made their way to Darwin. After time in Darwin it was out into the wider world and into Indonesian waters and the many islands it offers. At one point they ended up at Ende on the island of Flores. There they were befriended by Tommy who was “...the lector, the boss...” of the local university. Mari described the differences in their lives. Tommy was paid poorly as an academic as opposed to his counterparts in Australia. There was a general sparseness of the way he and his family lived. His family had a genuine interest in the outside world, thus was constantly questioning as to Mari and Alans lives and how they lived.
What about drugs and BF he asked at one point. “BF?” “Blue Films”. Mari stated that after being in a predominantly Muslim countries she too could view the west through different eyes. While in Indonesia Mari was aware that some Western women were in skimpy shorts and dresses and felt that for some it was an act of defiance but to others “....blatant unawareness of cultural sensitivities” When they were in Borneo fellow yachties had Mari listening to complaints about the local food, hygiene and lack of choice. “What do people expect in a poor country” Alan lamented. The sad part was that Mari had come to see the country itself, mix with the people and enjoy the experience. She had to listen to “....endless human complaints....”
After heading off from Indonesia they came to Singapore then travelled on to Malaysia and Thailand. At one point they stop on an island called Ko Muk that was described as the “.....ultimate tropical island dream come true” Mari describes the sink hole, the cliffs, the ferns and the reef. “I made bread and swam and pondered. This was different than being on holiday. This was cruising” Life was “....hedonistic and easy...”
From Thailand they sailed to Sri Lanka. They loved the sail there as it was easy, and Sri Lanka itself, even though it was in a civil war. Security was everywhere. There was also more poverty to deal with. Dealing with beggars was now part of the experience. At one point they got fleeced of a few dollars by a double act pretending to be the watchmen in the harbour, this was “.....part of the experience...” in poor countries. Sri Lankans, like all from the sub-continent, love cricket and it was assumed that they had come to watch a test match against England. No as they were there for the exotic, not the familiar. With that they made visit to temples, mountain castles, stone Buddha's among, caves among other things. At this time Mari made mention of the destruction of Buddhist statues in Afghanistan that caused outrage but found it “disquieting” that there was less care for the human lives lost in that tragedy. For all the lack of sense that Sri Lanka, as “infuriating isle” made, she was sad to leave.
The Maldives capital Male was next. The Maldives has a large tourist industry in which its tourists never actually see how the locals live. Whisked off to the resorts with all the sun sand and booze the Maldivian's wanted just to be paid for services such as snorkelling and diving. The trouble was the yachties really had no need for this; they lead a life doing such things for free in out of the way places. At this point Mari was sending emails to her children explaining to them her observations of “gross inequality” “corruption” “the maintenance of an uneducated workforce” and “oppression”. In the Maldives she was not blaming “colonialism or post- colonialism, this is people oppressing and exploiting their own people”. She apologised to her children saying that she was “slowly going berserk of people too long at sea”. At this point she writes that she begins to understand the local Muslim culture wanting to keep the tourists at bay. The Maldives had a population of about 300,000 with 500,000 visitors each year. As she wrote “Imagine 30 million tourists arriving in Australia each year, smoking opium and eating dogs. How would we feel and what would we do?” Expect compliance to the local customs of course.
Chagos was next, an island with no shops and that is its allure. If the yachties were stocked up many would stay for months on end. “Most of our time was occupied by fishing, food preparation, boat maintenance and walking around the islands......”. Mari did her best to get on with most of the fellow slow travellers but she was of a different thought process and had “... some self-destructive urge to argue and contradict”. She makes comment that most yachties come from the small business work and shared many characteristics no matter where in the world they came from. She was “...taken aback...” not by their need for freedom but their need to “.....unconsciously impose order on...” the “....most remote corners of the earth” After weeks on Chagos her memory of her former life was fading and her and Alan were “.....into another world where clock time stopped and life time began”.
Seychelles, Kenya and Tanzania were next. While in Victoria they witnessed the entire army of the nation parading to celebrate the 30 year socialist coup with the soldiers laughing and waving to their friends in the crowd, making it hard to imagine they could fight. Finally, Africa. At this point they met the voice of the radio guide for all the yachties in the Indian Ocean, Tony. He was not anything like his voice. He also told them of the loss of fellow yachties, Rick and Paula, during a storm. They had set of their emergency beacons but there was no chance of them being assisted and they were lost at sea. The dangers of the idyllic are close to the bone.
Mari fell in love with Africa. She loved the geography and the people. Even when robbed of a watch in broad daylight in front of witnesses it was part of the experience. With teachers on less than A$100 a month and doctors A$300, when a month's rent on an apartment was $900 life was difficult. When on safari Mari “..recaptured...” wonderment about the world around her. Tanga in Tanzania was that place that “..twangs at my heart strings” and the Serengeti was a place to “.....rejoice in the diversity of life forms...”. Africa was “...chaotic, it felt closer to the realities of life and death...” “...though it was risky, that was part of the pleasure.”
Why do we travel asked Mari at one point. It was supposed to be a ‘good thing' ‘broaden the mind' make us ‘better people'. With that she asked why today's tourists, travellers if one was to be kind, sat on beaches all day to fry themselves under a blazing sun and get inebriated. And if we do take in the cultural sites are we better for that and has that provided ‘succour for the soul'?
Recommended to those that like slow travel reading.
Not recommended to those that are less keen on a traveller writing their thoughts on how what they see and do affects their world.
I strained my eyes in vain to see through the moving mists ahead and glimpse the land which lay before us, the mountainous wilderness through which we would have to pass by secret ways before reaching the Chindwin Valley, and wondered what Burma might hold for. For Burma is a deadly place......
I read Peter Pinney's trilogy of WW2 novels a few years back and was enthralled. After the last I recall reading up on Pinney and after his return from the war it could be said he was unsettled with the possibility of the boredom of suburban life. He upped and basically travelled with immediate effect. When asked why at one point he replied along the lines that he wanted to go to places he had never been. By goodness, I can relate to this. Just on my walks in my neighbourhood the need to look up a street I have never been is always an urge. Imagine just being able to just up stumps and clear off to places unknown without care for comfort or home. This is for me real travel, taking a look.
In Greece we are told of “Guerrillas, Girls and Mined Railways.” It is just after the end of World War 2 and with that a country in the throes of civil war. He gets to see a train blown up, among other events, as he travels onto Turkey with its “Police, Petites Bêtes and Prostitutes.” While here he met Dutchman Robert Marchand who became his travelling companion for most parts of this journey. Pinney described him as debonair, cynical, light hearted, proud and resolute: a peerless companion.
After leaving Turkey they discovered “Dust, Liquor and the Syrian Army” Many a lie was told by the duo to get around officious border guards with the big one being that of joining the army. Iraq “whom the gods would destroy, they make mad first” At one point there is a court to face and the judges askes are they Christians or Jews? Christians they answered. ‘Case dismissed.'
Onto “A blithe Regard for Facts” that is Iran. Pinney describes the splendour of Tehran that is equalled by the squalor of its suburbs. Next is Afghanistan with its “Snow, Hashish and Red Pants” Pinney describes it as militant. That describes it's entire existence from the deep past to the present. Interestingly he describes that behind the suspicious mind of the locals was but a ‘generous nature of extraordinary hospitality'.
A short chapter on going through Pakistan, “Refugees, and echoes of the Past”, and into India with “Each Skull a box of worms before its time, To fish for bloaters of Sub-Human crime”. He described Calcutta as “....an evil city and a dirty one, where the rich are callous and the poor legion; a place of many gods but little godliness.” At this point Pinney and Marchand are keen to travel to Burma but there are many official obstacles, so they head as close as possible to Assam, land of “The Plains, the Jungle and Drunk Headhunters.” While there they hook up with another lost soul, an Italian called Roie Da Rosa who was described as “friendly” and having “...less money than we...”.
Last is Burma and “The Road to Mandalay”. The longest chapter of the book at 60 pages in my copy and a riveting read. Again in the midst of a civil war both Pinney and Marchand are looking for that road to lead them to မန္တလေး. Most of their time is spent in Homalin under virtual arrest by the local authorities but that does not stop the telling of a fascinating and ultimately bitter stay. Burma is a deadly place.
This is a genuine adventure from the beginning to the end told by Pinney. Some descriptors can be less than PC by today's writing standards, but that should not stop anyone who enjoys adventure travel looking out for this exceptional book. Pinney is a genuinely interesting writer and deserves a wider audience.
Recommended for those that just want to give it all away and go take a look.
Do we live in a world that has lost the capacity for wonderment?
Imagine.
After a good few years in the printing industry I had had enough. I had been worn down by the daily grind. One day it was actually all too much, and I thought enough was enough! I rang up a mate and his phone went to message bank I blurted something stupid like let's climb a mountain in the middle of nowhere or or or or! ........any ideas?
Not expecting anything more I get a reply. All arranged, off we go, ............!
Imagine that.
Eric Newby by perchance had, in real life, something similar happen to him in 1956. He had had enough of the rag trade, talked to a great mate, Hugh Carless, and next minute they were off to climb a little hill in a nearby county. Something like that anyway.
The witty narrative that is the first chapter had this reviewer enthralled and with that I was looking for words that were to describe my thoughts as to the magnificent adventure that Newby tells us. About how he and Carless do what to me is the unthinkable, walk to and then climb a mountain in a place that few Europeans had ever ventured at the time, the Hindu Kush.
Words?
How about a word, wonderment.
With Nuristanis racing “.....over the grass towards us at a tremendous pace, dozens of them” in what was then described as them giving “...an extraordinary impression of being out of the past” Newby tells of them finding Carless' telescope. He writes that “In a world that has lost the capacity for wonderment I found it very agreeable to meet people to whom it was possible to give pleasure so simply.” After various trials and tribulations wittily told about retrieving his watch from one member of the tribe Newby sadly writes that as they leave it was “.....characteristic of these people that their interest in strangers was exhausted as quickly as it was born.” An unfortunate turn of phrase it could be suggested because I could add that he may have described humanities condition in general; cheap thrills and then a quick loss of interest.
But then there maybe just those such as Newby who do find a permanent sense of wonderment in the world we inhabit. That is why we read their travel writing, to get that sense of amazement and bewilderment about the world that once was, is now and maybe even what could be the future.
This is a great travel book that has stood the test of time. At 248 pages it never overstays it welcome. It has a little of everything that anyone would want, jaunty self-depreciating wit, superb geographical descriptors' and a little of the local history.
Highly recommended to anyone looking to see or seek wonderment.
Will I get out of my office and do anything as impulsive as Newby and Carless?
Will I hell! I'm far too much of a pansy.
A well put together chronology of travel writing with the first chapter being called Advice on Travelling. This follows with a chapter each on Africa, Europe, Great Britain and Ireland, Near Asia, Middle Asia, Far Asia, North America, Central and South America and the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand and finally The Artic and The Antarctic.
The changes in advice to travellers when comparing this day and age is obviously going to leave one shaking their head or laughing at the sheer strangeness of advice from the past. We get the likes of Samuel Johnson telling us that “...travel has its advantages...” but he complained about books on travel and then travel itself as it “......will end likewise in disappointment...”
Prince Herman Puckler-Muskau told us that people of Naples were to be treated “brutally”. W B Lord and Thomas Baines gave advice as to dying of thirst in the desert. John Hatt on farting!
On Africa Suetonius Paulinus was an early writer as he was the first Roman General to advance some miles past the Atlas Mountains. Ibn Battuta, is well worth reading and not just for his contribution here. I recall him being quoted in other books I have read. In this compendium he tells of being protected from a crocodile by one local and also the difficulty of purchasing a female slave. English adventurer Andrew Battel alone is worth a read about such were his life adventures. Some names I recognised from my school days, Mungo Park and David Livingstone to name but a couple. We get wit shining through from a night with a Boer Meester via a certain William J. Burchell. Alexander Kinglake tells of Cairo and the plague in 1835. Not much changes when it comes to our world and pandemics through the age. Richard Lemon Lander tells of his ordeal by poison that had a wow effect on this reader. Later Sir Cecil Beaton meets the Rolling Stones in Marrakesh. I laughed out loud at him describing Jagger having “...hangers-ons, chauffeurs and Americans” A bit of British upper middle class snobbery coming to the fore.
Europe was mostly covered by English writers. George Turbeville wrote a poem about the Ruses and Giles Fletcher about their baths. Thomas Coryate is worth reading about such was his life's adventures. He was quite the celebrity in his day. John Evelyn, the other diarist, wrote of galleys in Marseilles and Thomas Gray wrote some nonsense about the “littleness” of Versailles! There is more to Edward Gibbon than the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Arthur Young wrote on French cooking. William Beckford's life is worth a read let alone his contribution to this compeduim. I enjoyed Shelly and his writing of Rome and Astolphe was a French writer who travelled to and wrote about Russia where we should “inspect nothing without a guide”. Robert Curzon wrote of Mount Athos and the “tomecide” that occurred in the monastery. As we get closer to our era Norman Douglas tells of the women of San Giovanni and Cecil Beaton appears again in Budapest. Lawrence Durrell and the superb Patrick Leigh Fermor also get to tell a tale.
Great Britain and Ireland begins with Greek navigator Pytheas around the isles 300 odd years BC. Strabo, another Greek writes of Ireland in the time of Christ. Dutch merchant Emanuel Van Meteren is not that impressed with the English in about 1575 as they are “...weak and tender...” and are also “...suspicious of foreigners, whom they despise.” Fynes Moryson an English traveller in Ireland circa 1600 thought the Irish drunks. Cesar De Saussure thinks the English a danger to foreigners during Lord Mayor's Day celebration's calling the revellers “insolent and Rowdy” and calling them the most “cursed brood in existence” with all those thought foreign called “French Dogs” no matter where they were from. German traveller Carl Phillip Moitz thought his coach ride in 1782 from Leicester to Northampton as something he would never forget as it seemed a prospect of certain death. William Cobbett in 1821 called Cricklade in Wiltshire a “villainous hole” such did he dislike the rural poor of that village. French soldier and politician, François de La Rochefoucauld, on the other hand spent a day in an English country house in the late 1700's happy with his time with the upper classes though did comment that “very often I have heard things mentioned in good society which would be in the grossest taste in France”.
Near Asia starts with Greek historian, Xenophon, discussing “The Retreat of the Ten Thousand” approximately 350 years BC. Saints Paul and Willibald get to write about their travels. Italian Ludovico Di Varthema writes on the Mamelukes love life in the early 1500's. Sir Richard Francis Burton in July 1853 had himself circumcised so as to cross the Arabian Peninsula and set of for Mecca. Edward Granville Browne had problems with local dialect in 1888 while traveling in Persia.
T. E Lawrence tells of the streets of Jeddah and Evelyn Waugh the problems with boy scouting in Aden. Geoffrey Bibby writes of Dilmun archaeology with the Sheik of Bahrain in 1954.
Middle Asia starts with Alexander the Great not knowing when to stop. Oderic of Pordenone, an Italian friar, tells of Tibet in the late 1200's. No book of this type could leave out a few words from Marco Polo nor should it leave out the remarkable Ibn Battuta, that amazing Arab traveller from the 1300's, who I really should read further. The previously mentioned Thomas Coryate tells of spending only a “pennie sterling a day” on his travels “betwixt Jerusalem and this Moguls' Court” and Edward Terry tells of Coryates eventual death. Evariste Regis Huc, a French Lazarist missionary, tells of the first Kalon in Lhassa looking at a flea under a microscope in 1846. Hungarian Arminius Vambery tells of the terrifying Kara Kum, the black sands, on his way to Khiva. English soldier Frederick Burnaby caused shock in Khiva when he mentioned he was not married. Sir George Scott Robinson writes of his visit in 1890 visit to Kafirstan where he thought the women immoral. Sven Hedin, a Swedish Geographer, tells of his crossing of the Takla Makan desert and the hardships than came from that journey. Compendium complier Eric Newby throws in one of his own tales and US former Korean War veteran tells a fun tale of contraceptives on a Pan AM flight leaving Bangkok to Bengal.
Far Asia begins with Fa-Hsien, a Chinese Buddhist monk who was an early Chinese traveller and he is followed about 300 years later by compatriot Hsuan-Tsang. Flemish monk William of Rubruck tells of an audience with Mangu Khan in 1254 and after we get the more noted Marco Polo. Ibn Battuta reappears with the telling of a meeting with the Sultan of Mul-Jawa where he witnesses a slave kills himself by decapitation as a declaration of love to the Sultan. The Sultan was present and with that Ibn Battuta writes that he “withdrew from the audience.” Italian traveller tells of the eating of human flesh on Java. Engelbert Kaempfer, a German doctor tells of the poisonous Blower fish when he made visit to Japan in the 1690's. Russian explorer Nikolao Mikailovich Prejevalsky feels the cold nights on the Mongolian Plateau. Englishman Sir Osbert Sitwell made visit to Angkor Thom in 1937. US traveller Oliver Statler tells of dinner at the twenty fifth temple while visiting Japan in the 1970's.
North America starts with Leif Ericsson the Norseman who was the first known European to go to the northern continent. Columbus and Da Verrazano are the other early travellers that get included. Jacques Cartier in the 1530's described his outrage that the Hurons having religious beliefs that he did not. Petro De Castaneda, a Spanish Conquistador, describes seeing a bison for the first time. English navigator Philip Amadas describes Virginia, John White tells of the lost colony of Roanoke while Claude Jean Allouez, a French Jesuit Missionary, paddled into Ottawa. Later Mederic Saint-Mery has views on American women of the late 1790's. Pretty with eyes that are alive but wan complexions and bad teeth. Lewis and Clark get included as does Frances Trollope who describes slavery in the southern states. We also get some writing from John Charles Fremont about the Rockies, G D Warburton on St Johns being the fishiest capital in the world and Henry David Thoreau on camping in the Maine Woods. US Rancher Bruce Siberts writes of Fort Pierre in South Dakota having only “a few good people”...”...some argued 15 or 18, but others said the estimate was too high.” Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance describes meeting white man. US hobo Hood River Blackie, aka Ralph Gooding, made good reading about Running Away in 1940.
Central and South America starts with Amerigo Vespucci as he describes his encounters with the locals in Mexico who are “neither Moors nor Jews” and “.....their living is very barbarous, because they do not eat at fixed times,...”. Magellan and Castillo describe the early European exploration of the southern continent. Hans Stade of Hesse, a German sailor, describes his suffering when captured by the Tupinamba people of Brazil in 1547. The English via Chaplain to Drake, Francis Fletcher, along with Walter Raleigh and John Chilton give us details of their adventures with Miles Phillips telling of the cruel judgement of the Inquisition in 1574. Naturalists such as Alexander Von Humbolt and Charles Waterton, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates describe everything from mosquitoes to earthquakes. English traveller Henry Nelson Coleridge describes his time in the West Indies trying to cure his rheumatism. US ship officer Ellery Scott witnesses the eruption of Mount Pelee while Aldous Huxley is disappointed in a pitch lake in Trinidad. Patrick Leigh Fermor reappears through this time in Guadeloupe.
Australia and New Zealand starts off with early Dutch navigator Jan Carstenzoon describing aboriginal encounters in 1623 and compatriot Abel Tasman in 1642 with his report on Tasmania. The English follow with Dampier and Cook. Russian navigator Fabian Gottlieb Von Bellingshausen describes the sober nature of Maoris in New Zealand. Exploration of the Australian interior by Charles Sturt and Peter Warburton makes for interesting reading as does Anthony Trollope's observations on the Australian “....sense of inferiority complex..” during his visit in 1871. Earnest Giles describes his issues with thirst while in the Gibson Desert while across the pond Samuel Butler claimed that “no one can mistake...” Mount Cook. I agree with him there! D H Lawrence describes Australia as “...a weird place.” But “...you get used to it.”
The Artic begins with Christopher Hall in 1576 giving an early view of Frobisher Bay and its inhabitants. Henry Morgan describes football with those inhabitants in 1586! Sir John Franklin is the first of many to describe hunger while exploring while Swedish explorer Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskjold spends time with the Chukchis in north eastern Siberia and notes the “fearful stench” as the locals “obeyed the calls of nature within the bedchamber”. Robert Edwin Peary describes his reaching of the North Pole. Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen explains his joy at meeting Frederick Jackson's parallel expedition in Franz Joseph Land. Canadian Vilhjamur Stefannsson writes of his love of his dogs and that to eat them “...would be but a step removed from cannibalism”
The Antarctic has US naval officer Charles Wilkes describing icebergs off Oates Land in 1840 while Norwegian Henrick Johan Bull, thought to be the first man to step onto the continent in 1895 calls it a “...strange and pleasurable...” place. Robert Falcon Scott on the other hand describes it as “awful” while Roald Amundsen is the first man to reach the South Pole. Great explorers of the region represented include Earnest Shackleton, Douglas Mawson and Richard Evelyn Byrd.
See comments for more.
Fantasy has not been much on my radar for many a long year, in fact I would say that I have read no pure fantasy much past my mid-twenties (shuuuush! 40 odd years ago). The obvious was Tolkien and C S Lewis in my teens but most other reading of the genre paled in comparison to the point that it was not that memorable. Sci Fi lasted longer with Science Fantasy being a favourite but that too became a lost cause.
So how did I come to read this fantasy, one not like anything I recall reading before?
In early 2018 I found it in an Op Shop for a measly $2 and after reading the cover blurb it seemed interesting. Like a lot of my Op Shop purchases it was put away in a dark corner bound to become the usual distant memory, or at least I thought. As with all readers of novels I had had a vague idea to write a book, mine based on a distant relative who was involved in nonsense about being the illegitimate son of Edward VII and closer relative who was once a member of the British Magic Circle. The idea was of combining the two characters in a book about a magician confidence trickster. After a few ideas jotted down I was typical of the dreamer, no idea where to go. Magic especially. A slightly odd uncle was hardly the basis for deep knowledge on said subject. Read about it, I thought and looked as to what I had.
I recalled I had this book so last Boxing Day I began this long brick of a novel and have to say that I have found it magnificent from page one. In my opinion a truly English fantasy that I have found breathtaking in scope, wondrous in the story telling and just damn well enthralling. The atmospheric shadowy feel, the spells cast, the deviousness of some characters, the seeming naivety of others. And the footnotes! How good are they? There is also, at times, a sense of humour pervading that shines through some dark, wintry, rainy, snowy gloom. Blend all this with an alternative telling of early 18oo's English history, magic returning after a long slumber to be used in the Napoleonic wars amongst other things and I was totally dragged in. For me this was a great fantasy. I will read this author again.
So that has left me thinking that writing a novel is but a dream. Compete with this? Not on your life. I have not that type of magic in me.
Peter Gosgrove is recognised throughout Australia for his leadership in both the military and in public life for his time served as Governor General. He has a genuine humanitarian instinct that is recognised by all sides of the political spectrum. Noted as an inspirational speaker and as a leader, he is a well-respected public figure that is loved and honoured by the vast majority. I have always admired him.
It now pains me to write this but this is a very pedestrian read that is bland in prose and makes what should have been exciting events boring. For a bloke who fought in the Vietnam War through to meeting some of the most important world leaders of his times, when reading I never felt any excitement or insight. Peter gave himself self away late in the book when he wrote that he had become a “dab hand at delicately stepping through the issue(s)”.