Explorers' Sketchbooks: The Art of Discovery & Adventure

Product Description Despite dramatic advances in technology and equipment over the centuries, there is one vital piece of kit in most explorers’ pockets that hasn’t changed much at all – the journal. The sketchbooks and journals presented here allow us the opportunity to share, through their own eyes and thoughts, the on-the-spot reactions of around 70 intrepid individuals as they journeyed into frozen wastes, high mountains, barren deserts and rich rainforests. Some are well known, such as Captain Scott, Charles Darwin, Thor Heyerdahl and Abel Tasman; others are unfamiliar, including Adela Breton, who braved the jungles of Mexico to make an unparalleled record of Maya monuments, and Alexandrine Tinne, who died in her attempt to be the first woman to cross the Sahara. Here are pioneering explorers and map-makers, botanists and artists, ecologists and anthropologists, eccentrics and visionaries, men and women. A handful of living explorers, including Wade Davis, provide their thoughts on the art of exploration. Often battered and neglected, stored away and perhaps long forgotten, many of these sketchbooks have themselves awaited rediscovery. Now is the chance to open them again... Includes a foreword by Robert Macfarlane and essays by several living explorers, among them Ghillean Prance, Alan Bean and Wade Davis. Includes a foreword by Robert Macfarlane and essays by several living explorers, among them Ghillean Prance, Alan Bean and Wade Davis. Table of Contents Foreword by Robert Macfarlane • Introduction: These Rough Notes, Huw Lewis-Jones & Kari Herbert • The Sketchbooks • Essays: This Glorious Forest, Ghillean Prance; Another World, Alan Bean; Infinite Beauty, Tony Foster; Indispensable Friends, David Ainley; Making Marks, Wade Davis Review ‘Astonishing’ -- The Spectator, Books of the Year ‘Offers many hours of endless escapes to magical adventures’ -- The Great Outdoors ‘The excitement of adventure and discovery leaps from the pages … electrifying.’ -- The Field ‘A box of delights’ -- Climb Lets you root around the journals of great wanderers' --Wanderlust ‘Imagine leaning over the shoulder of Captain James Cook as he charts the Pacific, or that of Meriwether Lewis as he and William Clark establish the true extent of the new nation of the United States. That’s the sensation you get as you leaf through this book.’ --Michael Kerr’s books of the year, Daily Telegraph ‘A delightful collection’ --Tom Robbins’ books of the year, Financial Times A ‘captivating compendium.’ -- Country Life ‘Magical’ -- Guardian top 10 travel books of the year ‘endlessly fascinating, full of striking images and great stories.’ -- Life360, (in the Middle East) ‘A thing of beauty…a very special book.’ -- Wanderlust books of the year ‘Exquisitely produced…Personality and passion are frequently on display. The scientific excitement is palpable.’ -- Geographical ‘An outstandingly beautiful book … fascinating’ -- Ships in Scale From the Back Cover Despite dramatic advances in technology and equipment over the centuries, there is one vital piece of kit in most explorers’ pockets that hasn’t changed much at all – the journal. The sketchbooks and journals presented here allow us the opportunity to share, through their own eyes and thoughts, the on-the-spot reactions of around 70 intrepid individuals as they journeyed into frozen wastes, high mountains, barren deserts and rich rainforests. Some are well known, such as Captain Scott, Charles Darwin, Thor Heyerdahl and Abel Tasman; others are unfamiliar, including Adela Breton, who braved the jungles of Mexico to make an unparalleled record of Maya monuments, and Alexandrine Tinne, who died in her attempt to be the first woman to cross the Sahara. Here are pioneering explorers and map-makers, botanists and artists, ecologists and anthropologists, eccentrics and visionaries, men and women. A handful of living explorers, including Wade Davis, provide their thoughts on the art of exploration.