Outposts
May 1st 2006 06:01
Today's book is 'Outposts' for Simon Winchester.
I saved this book from being returned to the publisher at work once by buying it. I guess you could say it's a bit of an oddity and would only appeal to a select group of people. I guess I'm one of those people. I've always been fascinated by remote islands and the unique communities that live there, cut off from the rest of the world. This book details the 'surviving relics of the British Empire', which probably appealed to me even more because the cultures detailed are more recognisable to me as a member of the commonwealth - recognisable but altogether different.
In 1985, Winchester (most famous for his historical book 'The Map that Changed the World') made it his mission to travel to each of the British Empire's last surviving dependent colonies, which are...
* The British Indian Ocean Territory (he only half succeeds here, as the place is locked off completely by the military)
* Tristan de Cunha (one of the most remote places in the entire world)
* Gibralter
* Ascension Island
* St Helena (Napoleon's second place of exile)
* Hong Kong
* Bermuda
* The British West Indies
* The Falkland Islands
* Pitcairn Island (the only place he is unable to visit, due to ships only visiting it once every six months)
There are some great anecdotes to be read here, and some interesting histories. I was surprised at the injustice Britain had wreaked upon the British Indian Ocean Territory - mainly because it's something the rest of the world really hasn't heard about, and continues not to hear about. The history of the British West Indies was very intriguing... particular in the recounting of (probably) legendary West Indian Africans who spoke Irish-Gaelic (the island of Montserrat having been colonised by the Irish!) My favourite part of the book though would probably have to be Tristan De Cunha... a small island in the middle of nowhere populated by a couple of hundred people who's families have been there for 300 years. It's very quaint and amusing.
I'm pretty sure this book is still available, it was originally published in 1985 but I've seen it about in several bookstores in Sydney.
Outposts
I saved this book from being returned to the publisher at work once by buying it. I guess you could say it's a bit of an oddity and would only appeal to a select group of people. I guess I'm one of those people. I've always been fascinated by remote islands and the unique communities that live there, cut off from the rest of the world. This book details the 'surviving relics of the British Empire', which probably appealed to me even more because the cultures detailed are more recognisable to me as a member of the commonwealth - recognisable but altogether different.
In 1985, Winchester (most famous for his historical book 'The Map that Changed the World') made it his mission to travel to each of the British Empire's last surviving dependent colonies, which are...
* The British Indian Ocean Territory (he only half succeeds here, as the place is locked off completely by the military)
* Tristan de Cunha (one of the most remote places in the entire world)
* Gibralter
* Ascension Island
* St Helena (Napoleon's second place of exile)
* Hong Kong
* Bermuda
* The British West Indies
* The Falkland Islands
* Pitcairn Island (the only place he is unable to visit, due to ships only visiting it once every six months)
Three of Britains far-flung colonial outposts.
I'm pretty sure this book is still available, it was originally published in 1985 but I've seen it about in several bookstores in Sydney.
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