by Timothy Severin
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The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale |
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Tim Severin has long been one of the most extraordinary travel writers in the English language. His skills as an explorer and world traveller have given birth to some remarkable books, and his highly individual odysseys are quite unlike those of any other writer (while still a student at Oxford, he made his first expedition by motorcycle tracing the route taken by Marco Polo). His books (such as the recent In Search of Moby Dick) have won him a whole slew of awards (notably the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award), and it wouldn't be too much of a surprise if this fascinating new volume gleans the same kind of success.
Seeking Robinson Crusoe is a compelling voyage of discovery, synthesising history and myth to create a picture of the man whose very name is synonymous with the desert-island castaway. In attempting to find out who was the real Robinson Crusoe, Severin takes us to many strange places, from islands where sailors were shipwrecked or cast adrift in the days of the buccaneers to the coast of Chile. It is here that Severin begins his journey, on the island of Juan Fernandez. From here the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk (who many consider to be the prototype for Daniel Defoe's immortal hero) set sail. And Severin is interested, too, in the descendants of Crusoe's Man Friday: we are shown the lives of Miskito Indians carving out a difficult existence in the Nicaraguan swamps.
Of course, Daniel Defoe is a significant character in Severin's investigation, and he tracks down (as did his predecessor Defoe) the English buccaneer surgeon, Lionel Wafer, who had a bloody run-in with pirates and is also a significant element in the fabric of this highly unusual (and highly memorable) book. The characters you'll encounter on this journey are quite as exotic as the many locales, and all are filtered through Severin's distinctive authorial voice. --Barry Forshaw
Product Description
This work is an exploration in to the legend behind Daniel Defoe's classic novel, citing possible places where this famous character could have been marooned. It examines the claim that Crusoe was based on a real life castaway, Alexander Selkirk. Describing the tropical locales and the practicalities of island life, the text brings the fictional and the factual together, along the way exploding some enduring myths.
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