Meticulously researched, historically accurate and brilliantly transformed into a compulsive novel this is the story of the genius of Captain Robert Fitzroy of 'The Beagle' fame, and the man behind the science of weather forecasting....and his dark secret.
This is an epic novel of sea-faring adventure set in the 19th century charting the life of Robert Fitzroy, the captain of 'The Beagle' and his passenger Charles Darwin. It combines adventrure, emotion, ideas, humour and tragedy as well as illuminating the history of the 19th century. Fitzroy, the Christian Tory aristocrat believed in the sanctity of the individual, but his beliefs destroyed his career and he committed suicide. Darwin, the liberal minor cleric doubts the truth of the Bible and develops his theory of evolution which is brutal and unforgiving in human terms. The two friends became bitter enemies…
A very humorous look at a little known and true episode in WW1, in which a failed naval officer with tattooed legs and wearing a skirt somehow transports two boats across a vast stretch of jungle in the Congo and leads an assault expedition on the German fleet on Lake Tangyanika. Against all odds this bumbling troops achieves the first naval successes of the Great War. Full of delight, surprise and fascination.
At the start of World War One, German warships controlled Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa. The British had no naval craft at all upon 'Tanganjikasee', as the Germans called it. This mattered: it was the longest lake in the world and of great strategic advantage. In June 1915, a force of 28 men was despatched from Britain on a vast journey. Their orders were to take control of the lake. To reach it, they had to haul two motorboats with the unlikely names of Mimi and Toutou through the wilds of the Congo.
Larry Patterson trained as a vet in the UK but never intended to work with dogs, cats or cows. His dream centred on African wildlife. He went to Uganda and it changed his life. He learned to fly, undertook animal censuses from the air, almost died in a car crash, almost got crushed by an under-sedated rhinocerous, was knocked over by a surprised lion, watched a leopard walk past ten feet away as he sat at a fire with Prince Harry, became a specialist at darting elephants, started the first private veterinary clinic in Botswana, ran a successful game capturing service supplying the new industry of game farms, wrote conservation and management plans for some of Africa's most important national parks, and in particular was responsible for the success of opening up Ruaha NP in Tanzania to sustainable tourism. Above all, his intention was to conserve Africa's unique and extraordinary creatures - he explains how responsible trophy hunting can actually reduce poaching and provide a fairer distribution of income among the local people than so called 'green' photographic safaris. This book is full of humour and wisdom by someone who loves Africa and has experienced all its riches, foibles and failings. Thoroughly entertaining, interesting and thought-provoking, Aiming to Save is also an important record of a changing Africa.
Pursuing a dream instilled by early David Attenborough television adventures, a young man from the industrial northwest of England is advised at school to become a veterinary surgeon as a first step towards a career working with wild animals in Africa.
His misgivings about the values and justification of domestic veterinary practice are contrasted with a passion for wilderness and wildlife conservation. Early experiences in the vivid Uganda of Idi Amin are juxtaposed with life in a grey Pennines veterinary practice.
Eventually arriving as a veterinary officer in newly independent Botswana he finds adventure with wild animals as a veterinarian…
The story of a young man who goes to Alaska with no experience of sled dogs but has a dream of crossing the frozen north with his own team and reaching the Bering Sea. Full of humour and self-deprecation, the author describes the bewildering, maddening and wonderful process of learning how to fit his life into the world of dogs, and rich and humiliating rewards to be won. He then takes his ramshackle team 900 miles along the frozen Yukon River to the Bering Sea and the tiny island of Little Diomede, just a few miles from the Russian border. On the way he shares the lives and stories of trappers, air force pilots, Iditarod racers, Athabascans and Inupiaq coastal dwellers, and discovers the bizarre and extraordinary history of this remote region. And has to cope with sick dogs, blizzards, getting lost and relying on the kindness of strangers. A journey of insights, into the people, the land and a Scotsman wanting to look and understand.
