coming soon…
In 1976 Lieutenant General Sir John Glubb published an essay called “The Fate of Empires”. In it Glubb suggests at least two ideas that are influential today. The first is that all empires have a lifespan of 250 years, which corresponds to about 10 human generations. The second is that empires have six stages. The…
Arabian Sands is a classic c20th account of physical endurance by Wilfred Thesiger, one of the great adventurers. The book describes Thesiger’s travels across the Empty Quarter on the Arabian Peninsula. It was published more than 60 years ago but the writing is understated, with short sentences. This simultaneously makes it feel modern, and is…
Wind, Sand and Stars is perhaps the most beautifully written adventure, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery who also wrote The Little Prince It is autobiographical, describing the author’s experiences piloting planes across the Sahara and the Andes in the 1920s-40s, searching for adventure and for something else undefined. The writing is lyrical, with lines and images…
Addicted to Adventure is an outstandingly interesting autobiographical account of Bob Shepton‘s sailing adventures. The first half of Shepton’s life – Royal Marines, ordained minister, teaching at various boarding schools, years of committed rock climbing – is dealt with quickly! The bulk of the book starts after his retirement and describes his polar sailing journeys.…
Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey – Maturin series was published between 1969 and 1999. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars, and is centred around the friendship between Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and Stephen Maturin, surgeon and spy. There is high adventure, the descriptions of RN sailing vessels and life aboard are consistently accurate,…
Books ask us to create images to accompany the words. This encourages our imagination. But, in Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki Expedition, photos of the actual raft used to cross the Pacific help us to understand the epic nature of the journey. By showing us the balsa logs lashed with hemp ropes that comprised the raft, they…