Storms and Dreams: Louis de Bougainville: Soldier, Explorer, Statesman

Biographies & Memoirs

John Dunmore

Community & Culture

Nonsuch Publishing

This delightful Victorian novel, beautifully illustrated with woodcuts by John Leech, follows the romantic exploits of two generations of the Pringle family. Miss Emma Willing is a humble seamstress who makes a good first marriage to Mr. Billy Pringle, the result of which is the hero of the story, their son Fine Billy. After the untimely death of her husband, Mrs. Pringle secures the launch of her son into polite country society by the Earl of Ladythorne. Once ensconced in the countryside, Billy soon forgets an early dalliance with a serving girl and finds himself immersed in the world of fox hunting, and courted by local society, including the Miss Yammertons. Filled with colorful and humorous characters, this book presents an affectionate but irreverent view of country life for the wealthy Victorian.

Ask Mamma: Or the Richest Commoner in England (Nonsuch Classics)

Literature & Fiction

SURTEES, Robert S.

Literary

An insightful and in-depth account of the author’s service with the British Army in India and his part in the First Anglo-Afghan War, The Campaign in Afghanistan narrates how the author attended military academy, obtained a commission in the 31st Regiment of Foot, and travelled to India before going on to describe regimental life. In 1842 the regiment was dispatched to Afghanistan, where there was a popular uprising against the British occupation. The Kabul garrison had been evacuated and almost all of its members were killed before they reached India; the Jellalabad garrison was under siege. Despite the perilous and inhospitable nature of the Afghan terrain, Lieutenant Greenwood and the 31st Foot were part of the force which relieved Jellalabad and rescued British prisoners in Kabul before returning safely to India. This personal account of the campaign describes what it was really like to be on the front line in one of Britain’s colonial wars.

The Campaign in Afghanistan

History

Greenwood, Lt. John

Asia

This is a highly personal account of the author’s experiences in the army of Napoleon. The account starts with the author at the age of 19, and without having chosen a career, being inspired to join the cavalry after seeing a regiment of dragoons marching in Paris in 1800. The narrative traces the author’s remarkable rise through the ranks and his experiences under the command of Napoleon. The focus of the book is on military encounters, recording de Ségur’s involvement in the key battles that were to make France the dominant power of Europe in the early 19th century. Yet it is the personal details, such as Napoleon’s reaction to the tomb of Frederick the Great, discussions between Napoleon and his officers, and the author’s experiences away from the battlefield, which make this work a compelling and unique narrative of such an important period in European history.

Memoirs of an Aide-de-Camp of Napoleon 1800-1812

de Ségur, General Count Philip

Historical

An account of the ancient trackways across the area known as Wessex, the old kingdom of the West Saxons, once ruled by King Alfred the Great: roughly speaking, Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset as well as parts of Devon, Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds. With Salisbury Plain at its centre, the chalk hills and downs of southern England radiate out in all directions, and the ridgeways provided natural routes from one place to another, along which the early inhabitants of Britain travelled. Ancient Trackways of Wessex is a practical walker's guide to the pathways across this chalkland as well as a study of such matters as topography, history, sights to be seen and the relevant Ordnance Survey maps. It is arranged into walks along particular routes between given points and includes photographs and simple maps. Meticulously and comprehensively researched, Ancient Trackways of Wessex is a delightful exploration of this enchanting corner of England.

Ancient Trackways of Wessex

Brill, Edith

Timperley, H W

Europe

On May 18, 1845 Sir John Franklin set sail with a crew of 134 men on two ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage. The ships were last seen on July 26th by an Arctic whaler off the entrance to Lancaster Sound and from there they vanished, never to be seen again. A series of rescue expeditions discovered that disaster had overtaken the expedition and none of the crew made it out of the Arctic region alive. Sir John Franklin and the Arctic Regions, written 6 years after his disappearance, but before the final fate of him and his crew had been determined, sheds light on Arctic exploration in the 19th century and Franklin’s successful earlier expeditions in particular, as well as providing a gripping account of the growing unease as nothing further is heard from them. By using letters and logs from the actual expeditions sent to discover the fate of the doomed voyage, Simmonds vividly brings to life the dangers explorers faced in the hostile conditions of the Arctic and the drive and courage of the men who were determined to expose its secrets.

Sir John Franklin and the Arctic Regions

Simmonds, P.L.

World

It was Charles Darwin's account of his experiences in Patagonia's terra incognita that caught the imagination of a young George Musters, an officer in the Royal Navy. On April 17, 1869, he landed at Gregory Bay, and over the course of the next 11 months traversed across the Patagonian steppes, from the Rio Santa Cruz to the Rio Negro. During this odyssey, Musters lived and travelled with the Teheulche tribes, and found in these "South Sea giants" a gentle and deeply intelligent people. Unlike Darwin or any of the other anthropologists who had walked this "untrodden ground," Musters' work is devoted entirely to the lifestyle of the Teheulche, their rituals and their hierarchies, an empathetic account of their fascinating lives. First published in serial form in the Buenos Aires Standard, At Home with the Patagonians is regarded as "an ethnographic monument," providing, as it does, a first-hand insight into the ways and days of a vanishing people.

At Home with the Patagonians (Travellers, Explorers & Pioneers)

Musters, George C.

Americas

The Baghdad Air Mail is the personal narrative of Wing Commander Roderic Hill's time flying the Air Route from Cairo to Baghdad. The Air Mail Route was conceived by the British in Cairo in 1921 to overcome the difficulties of land communication between Palestine, Iraq, and Egypt. Run by the RAF until 1926 using a number of different planes, the pilots carried both mail and passengers over inhospitable landscapes, often in perilous conditions. Hill's own experiences detailed in the later chapters of the book reflect the hazards of air travel for the pilots of this route. He also gives a fascinating insight into life in the early 20th century for a British airman and provides compelling descriptions of the landscapes and people he encountered during his time on the job.

The Baghdad Air Mail

Hill, Wing Commander Roderic

Middle East

The Life & Labours of Thomas Brassey

Helps, Sir Arthur

Professionals & Academics

Largely written while the author was being held as a hostage by the Afghan leader Mahomed Akber Khan, along with his family and several other British officers and their families, The Military Operations at Cabul is an account of the tragedy and destruction which overtook the British army during the First Afghan War. Recounting only the events which he himself witnessed or of which he had eyewitness testimony, Eyre provides a detailed and moving description of the misfortunes of the British forces and the indiscriminate slaughter of the retreating column by their enemies, as well as a unique account of the harrowing conditions and distressing treatment that were inflicted on the British hostages by their Afghan captors. This is a unique and compelling testimony of events that shocked the greatest Empire on earth to its core.

Military Operations at Cabul: The Retreat and Destruction of the British Army

Eyre, Lieutenant Vincent

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