Crusoe's Island: A Rich and Curious History of Pirates, Castaways and Madness

Product Description Originally named Juan Fernández, the island of Robinson Crusoe in the South Pacific was the inspiration for Defoe's classic novel about the adventures of a shipwrecked sailor. Yet the complex story of Britain's relationship with this distant, tiny island is more surprising, more colourful and considerably darker. Drawing on voyage accounts, journal entries, maps and illustrations, acclaimed historian Andrew Lambert brings to life the voices of the visiting sailors, scientists, writers and artists, from the early encounters of the 1500s and the perilous journeys of the eighteenth-century explorers, to the naval conflicts of the First World War and the environmental concerns of more recent years. Crusoe's Island explores why we are still not willing to give up on the specks of land at the far ends of the earth. Review [An] intriguing, wide-ranging book...[Lambert's] narrative of Juan Fernandez's history takes in privateers in search of Spanish gold, scurvy ridden sailors recovering their health in a Pacific Eden, a penal colony nearly wiped out by earthquake and tsunami, and German and British warships exchanging fire during the First World War ... [Crusoe's Island] show[s] why this tiny speck in the Pacific has played a larger role on the world's stage than its size seems to warrant. ― Sunday Times Engaging ... Lambert traces the development of the seesaw relationship between Britain and [the Juan Fernandez archipelago] ... As the EU totters and our union falters, Lambert's enquiry begins to feel less like a foray into the past and more like an urgent investigation into that strange blend of qualities that bound Britain together in the first place. ― Literary Review Excellent ... [Lambert] takes the reader on a steady voyage, from the moment the uninhabited islands emerged from the gloom of geographical ignorance after the Spaniard Fernandez discovered them in the 16th century. The tales involves piracy, the South Sea Bubble, fish 'so plentiful that in less than one hour's time two men caught enough for our whole company', whaling, sealing, shifts in imperial ambition following Britain's loss of America, evolving global trade patterns and the fashion for oceanic travel books. Crusoe's Island is a serious work that will remain the standard history for some time. ― Spectator Interesting ... [Lambert's] credentials as a naval historian are solid. ― Guardian [A] thought-provoking book about how a real place became an imagined place. ― Times In Crusoe's Island, naval historian Andrew Lambert traces the history of island castaways and the rich cultural history that their experiences have inspired ... In this imaginative book, Lambert uses the history of one small group of Pacific islands to illustrate England's and Britain's break with a narrow European sense of identity as it turned into a global power, and demonstrates the role that literature played in this transition ... a brilliant achievement that demonstrates Lambert's vast knowledge of maritime history. ― Times Higher Education Supplement Lambert, a highly respected naval historian, describes the many expeditions, as well as their military and economic contexts, with characteristic aplomb ... a very entertaining volume ― The National In Lambert's tautly braided story, the 300-year descent of Juan Fernandez from vertiginous paradise to ecological ruin is viewed through the prism of human interventions which mirror episodes in British history ...This is history more pertinent and fantastical than fiction. ― TLS Book Description The fascinating history of an island that has haunted our imagination and culture, by acclaimed historian Andrew Lambert. About the Author Andrew Lambert is Laughton Professor of Naval History at King's College London. His books include Nelson: Britannia's God of War, Admirals: The Naval Commanders Who Made Britain Great, Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation, The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War o