Outposts

In this book, an early one by Simon Winchester, he concocts the idea of visiting the remaining British Commonwealth ‘possessions', to establish the colonial situation of these - to revisit the question posed by George V in 1936 - “How is the Empire”. It is not an original concept for a book - I have read another on the same lines, albeit later that Winchesters 1985 publication - and it makes for a slightly disjointed read, but I suppose you need some sort of premise for a book don't you?

I decided that as I read this I would make a few notes about each chapter to avoid my regular need to read parts again once finished so as to formulate a review!

British Indian Ocean Territory
In this first chapter of travel, Winchester teams up with a 27 year old Australian woman with a yacht and a willingness to visit the restricted territories in the Indian Ocean owned and administrated by the British but solely occupied by an American Base (although it is not referred to as a Base by the authorities, just a ‘facility'). After arriving at Boddam Island, one of the various uninhabited northern islands other than Diego Garcia (the island which forms the American base facility), Winchester backtracks to fill in the political details of how the BOIT came about - in very simple terms when Mauritius and the Seychelles were British Colonial Possessions, the islands of the BOIT were dependencies of these. When Britain granted them independence, it was on the condition that the islands of the Chagos Archipelago were surrendered to remain British. No reason was given for this strange move, but shortly after, America was permitted, free of charge, to use the largest island, Diego Garcia, for ‘defence purposes'.

This however meant the forceable removal of the approx 2000 in habitants, relocated to the Seychelles against their will. This was done in a particularly underhand way, although the British Labour government were brazen when it came to light. The whole affair reflects badly on the British government, and in 2017 the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the United Kingdom must transfer the islands to Mauritius as they were not legally separated from the latter in 1965. The UK Foreign Office said the ruling is not legally binding, and continues to ignore this.

Long story short, Winchester spent about a week at Boddam Island, and one night at Diego Garcia, although he was not permitted to set foot on land.

This was a good start, and interesting chapter about a place I knew nothing of!

Tristan da Cunha
Another yacht, this time in South Africa, awaiting suitable weather for the notoriously dangerous voyage to Tristan da Cunha. Unfortunately we spend a dozen pages with this narrative, only a few short jaunts of sailing before the ship is not deemed worthy of the risky trip and Winchester is back in London.
Starting again, he is invited onto a ship travelling to Tristan, and in spite of the wild seas, and trouble using the port he does make it to land, and spends a few short days with the inhabitants who already know all about him before he arrives, and (understandably) take a bit of a stand-offish position with him, knowing he has the ability to make a spectacle of them, committing their flaws to paper in perpetuity, and with which they must live. There is a little interesting history, but otherwise, like BIOT, this chapter is more about the journey than the destination.

Gibraltar
A journey by foot, this time, hiking in Spain to reach Gibraltar. Upon reaching the border, Winchester is denied entry (as were all British passport holders at the time) by the Spanish, who still consider Gibraltar Spanish. He was, like all who try this route, to take a hydrofoil from Spain to Morocco, then to Gibraltar! On Gibraltar, we hear about the history, the siege attempts by Spain to recover Gibraltar and the apes (of course). He quotes Laurie Lee from his As I Walk out one Midsummer Morning biography.

Ascension Island
By RAF plane, Winchester arrives at Ascension, an island occupied by a RAF base, a satellite monitoring (spying) facility and the BBC! Previously the spy facility was a cable station, a link in the communications cables linking Britain with the outposts, by this time redundant. Not acknowledged, were the American spies on the island - the NSA.

So far it seems like the British outposts that the ‘Empire' chose to retain are all for military advantage!

St Helena
Famously the place of exile of Napoleon, St Helena breaks the mould of military benefit. It seems Britain has had no real use for St Helena since Napoleon's death. In 1981, like most British Colonies, St Helena was reclassified as an British Dependant Territory, (Gibraltar and later,the Falkland Islands escaped this indignity), removing the islanders the rights to British Citizenship (and thus abode). Aggrieved, the islanders point to the 1673 Charter signed by Charles II which protected these rights.(In the 1990s and 2000s law changes eventually reinstated these rights).
Have to say, Winchester is not really painting a picture of these locations - this chapter seemed all about the journey and the history.

Hong Kong
For Hong Kong, Winchester travels from Peking (Beijing), but doesn't dwell to long. He dedicates the chapter to a historical look at how Britain came to be in possession of Kong Kong, with a quick view toward what is expected to happen 12 years from his visit - the returning of Hong Kong to China. Nothing very new here, but a good summary of events.

Bermuda
And back to another American base, and despite being an American tourist destination and using dollars and cents currency pegged to the US dollar, Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory. Once again free use for the military base was offered to the USA who at the time of publication were using Bermuda as a base for the submarine monitoring along the east coast of the USA. I know my chapters are getting smaller, but there was nothing much happening in this one!

British West Indies (Turks & Caicos; British Virgin Islands; Anguilla; Monserrat; Cayman Islands)
Shorter chapters these, which outline the historical ownerships of these islands.
Turks & Caicos suffering with traditional ‘one-crop-economies' - salt, lobster, crab, conch or cotton - with drug smuggling added to that list, and perhaps the most successful.
British Virgin Islands, where much of the narrative explains how the world ended up with two sets of Virgin Islands - the American and the British.
Anguilla - mostly this section revolves around the 350 troop assault of the island which made the British look fairly silly, since journalists found out in advance and were on the beach to greet them!
Monserrat - A French name, colonised by the Irish, yet a British Oversea's territory. It is volcanic and had an economy supported by lime juice, but at the time of writing was favoured as a place for musicians to hide up and record albums. Paul McCartney and Elton John are named in this chapter, and I know the Rolling Stones also recorded there.
Cayman Islands - A financial success story, since it became a tax haven, although not perhaps much of a holiday destination.

The Falkland Islands
Interesting, probably because it explains the tensions which caused the war, but doesn't discuss the war itself. At the time the situation in South Georgia (Argentines salvaging scrap from an old whaling station without having obtains visas) and tensions were brewing, Winchester was sent to the Falklands in preparation for an attempt to get to South Georgia and report on the events. As such he was on the Falklands at the time of the Argentine invasion and British surrender. Later in Argentina, still sniffing around he and two other journalists were arrested down in Tierra del Fuego and charged with spying. He spent three months in prison in Ushuaia (and subsequently wrote a book about it).

Pitcairn and other Territories
No, Winchester skips Pitcairn - it is hard to get to and a visit must be 10 hours or 6 months, nothing in between. Instead he mentions a few others he elects not to visit - British Antarctic Territories, and then those which are not Colonial possessions - Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Jersey, Guernsey etc

Winchester then wraps it up with a rather long winded summary, order of various events and draws a bunch of conclusions, without really being able to wrap it all together. No easy task, and by this point I was looking for the end. His take away - the British Overseas Territories are poorly treated when compared to French, Dutch or American equivalents. The administrators don't always have a vested interest in assisting the people, and London has no vested interest in investing in them. Winchester goes on to propose some outcomes.

I wouldn't say it wasn't a worthwhile book, but it lacked cohesiveness. While he aimed to look for ‘Britishness' in these British Territories, I am not sure he concentrated on that. He put a lot of effort into the journeys, into the people he met and into the histories. I didn't get a great impression of the geography or the feel of each place, how they differed or how they were similar. In that respect, I don't think it was successful. As a travel book, following a (slightly gimmicky) theme, I enjoyed it. I think we can see the makings of Winchester's future books Atlantic and Pacific, where he gathers anecdotes from places with commonalities, and wraps them into a great book.

3.5 stars, rounded down.

Sorry this got long!

It has been interesting to read this book 20 years after publication. A very readable mix of history and travel and with that some very interesting events that would pass the reader by generally. There are a couple of very strong chapters, “Tristan”, “St Helena” and the “Falklands” for example. “Pitcairn and other territories” just seems an ill fit. The final chapter “Some Reflections” seems dated. The Further reading seems perfunctory.

In the end an easy read so it was never that hard to read past the dated history. I found that Winchester wrote a mix of love and despair and at times a fair bit of sarcasm about the remnants of the now (almost) gone Empire and with that I suggest that this would have been a fine read on release.