- Paperback: 500 pages
- Publisher: Granta Books; New edition edition (22 Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1862075026
- ISBN-13: 978-1862075023
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
79,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #83 in Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Discovery & Exploration
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Amazon.co.uk Review
There's something about the overwhelming emptiness and terrifying beauty of the polar regions that never fails to attract. They are the most powerful symbols we have left of a world where human-made laws and values count for nothing; no one conquers the frozen wastelands-- they merely learn to live by the rules nature dictates. It is easy to see how for a long time the lives of the polar explorers were shrouded in quasi-mystical and heroic terms. This all changed in the 1970s with the publication of Roland Huntford's magnificent biography, Scott and Amundsen, in which he systematically and methodically revealed the levels of incompetence and arrogance with which Scott's expedition was riddled.
In Barrow's Boys Fergus Fleming takes us on an incisive and witty journey through the landmark years of British exploration from 1816-1850, marvelling at both the bravery and the stupidity involved. Fleming is a historian first and foremost, so he begins by placing exploration in its context. It wasn't some high-minded idealism or wacky sense of adventure, as is often suggested, that placed Britain at the forefront of discovery, but economics and self-interest. At the end of the Napoleonic wars, the British Navy was too large for its peacetime needs. Officers were laid off and advancement was slow, so the Navy needed to find itself a role. Charting the unmapped areas of the world seemed as good an idea as any.
Step forward John Barrow. Barrow was only the Second Secretary at the Admiralty--not normally a position of great influence--yet he was a skilled politician, and he managed to carve out a niche for himself by organising expedition after expedition. He started inauspiciously by sending Captain James Tuckey off on an ill-fated jaunt up the Congo in search of Timbucktoo, which was then imagined as some African El Dorado, and he ended in failure with the loss of Franklin's expedition to find the North West Passage. In between he courted triumph and tragedy; Ross discovered Antarctica, Parry opened up the Arctic with his attempt on the Pole, and Captain Bremer failed to establish northern Australia as the new Singapore.
Fleming has a great feel for the telling detail. He doesn't get lost in endless minutiae that distract from the narrative, but he never fails to remind us of the surrealism of British 19th-century exploration--cocked hats and reindeer-drawn sledges in the Arctic, frock coats in the Sahara. When put like this, it makes it all too easy to see how Scott could have been allowed to have botch his journey to the South Pole quite so catastrophically. --John Crace --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Good Book Guide
‘A remarkable story, engagingly and knowledgeably told’
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A book which proves the English are completely mad. A collection of chaotic attempts in the first half of the eighteenth century to complete the NW passage, get to the North/South Pole, and explore Africa - some explorations were extremely good, some totally insane. Highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a book that I can heavily recommend to any interested in exploration or in stories of derring-do. Proof that the supposedly mythical upper-lip mentality of the empire building Brit pioneers really does have a basis in reality. The highpoint has to be Franklin's disastrous overland trek through the Canadian waste that ends with a novel and questionable method for survival; eating your own boots. Five stars and worth them all.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A rip-roaring ride through a vast number of expeditions both grand-scale and shoe-string with leaders who were variously, brave, intelligent, corrupt, bigotted, opportunistic and plain incompetent. Fleming never hesitates to find the fun and the ridiculous in it all, but neither does he gloss over the horror, agonies and reckless stupidity that were all integral parts of (particularly British) explorations in the Regency and early Victorian periods. Compelling and brilliant and not in the least bit stuffy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Tales of Derring do deftly told.
I found this book thoroughly enjoyable and rather informative. It acts as a fluid compendium for the 19th century period in British adventure and exploration. Read more
Published 19 months ago by A. S. Edwards
review of copy of barrows boys
The book arrived promptly, was well packaged and was in a reasonable condition, as described.
Published 23 months ago by rubyred
Amazing!
You really do need to read this book in order to appreciate the life and comforts we now take for granted. This book would be enjoyed by virtually anyone. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2006 by Sherlock
An exciting story competently told
I cannot agree with the extravagent praise which this book has received: I think this was because for many readers the main events recounted were new. Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2004
Brilliant
Fleming weaves a compelling yarn of the numerous explorers who set off on daring and intrepid missions to fill in the gaps that were missing from the global map of the mid 19th... Read more
Published on 23 Nov 2003 by Ian Thumwood
Very Enjoyable Exploration History
This is a fascinating and enjoyable account of a number of brave men, sent to the furthermost points of the world to fill in the blank spots on the British Navy's globe. Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2003 by Aussie Reader
From Biblio to Bio
The Author explains that this book was conceived as the name of John Barrow is to be found in the Bibliographies on English Expeditions of Discovery, for a good portion of the... Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2002 by taking a rest
A world-wide roller-coaster ride
Fergus Fleming's book is a prodigiously researched and scholarly account of the wide range of expeditions undertaken by an equally diverse number of explorers sent out by John... Read more
Published on 24 Jan 2002 by Ken Newell
The Golden Age of exploration
This biographical documentary focuses on John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty. This man was obsessed with exploration and via his position and the creation and assumption... Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2001
Wonderfully entertaining history of exploration
Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty from 1816 to 1848, launched the most ambitious programme of global exploration that the world has ever seen. Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2001 by William Podmore
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