Product Description

Selkirk was a buccaneer who sailed the South Seas on looting expeditions for gold and treasure. In 1703 he joined an expedition whose object was to plunder French and Spanish ships. Eventually they reached the island of Juan Fernandez, off the coast of Chile, where Selkirk opted to maroon himself. Suddenly solitude and silence were imposed, and his only relationship was with the island and with himself. He learnt to kill goats with cudgels and use their skins for coats and shoes. He hollowed out a canoe and circumnavigated the island. In 1709 Selkirk spotted two ships from his cliff-top lookout. They saw his fire and the next morning landed on Juan Fernandez - to be greeted by an unrecognisable savage-looking man incoherent with emotion. He sailed back with them to civilisation where he 'bewailed his return to the world'. Selkirk died in 1720 back at sea, of yellow fever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #242122 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Diana Souhami's Selkirk's Island is not the first book about the extraordinary, real-life adventures of the Scotsman, Alexander Selkirk--that credit must go to a rather better-known book, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Nor, doubtless, will it be the last. But it might be the best. Diana Souhami's book commands superlatives for every reason. The author of previous, outstanding biographies, including the prizewinning The Trials of Radclyffe Hall, Souhami has produced a marvellous account of what life was like on the remote, rain-swept (not desert) island of Juan Fernandez. Selkirk chose to remain on the island in 1704, when he sensed that the piratical voyage he had joined himself to was sinking fast. His shipmates sailed on and left him. For four years he survived in total solitude, hunting the wild goats on the island and clubbing them to death, building a hut from the branches of sandalwood trees, and making fire with dry sticks. Souhami brings everything to life with vivid, imaginary vignettes: "A boa constrictor arrived coiled in the hollow of a cut tree. It had journeyed from Brazil for seven weeks over choppy seas. The tree washed ashore with the turning tide. It sloughed its skin and danced alone." When at last two ships sailed into Juan Fernandez's tiny harbour, quite by chance, they found a bearded, savage-looking man, who could only utter the one word: "Marooned!" Souhami is brilliant on the natural history, on the physical details, on the sheer, intractable character of the material world that Selkirk had to deal with--and all these things demand that you, the reader, ask yourself: "Could I have done this? Would I have survived?" This is what makes Selkirk's Island compelling, fascinating reading, and the three double-page colour photographs of the island are breathtaking. --Christopher Hart

Christopher Hart.

Review
SELKIRK'S ISLAND by Diana Souhami FMCM Again we are setting an end of month press date for this title with confirmed publicity in Guardian My Life In Writing (20/4), The Herald's My Favourite Book (4/5), and BBC Radio 4 Open Book (21/4) and Excess Baggage (13/4), with local radio including BBC GMR and Austrian Broadcasting Company plus BBC World Service's Outlook (25/4). Plus the shelflife interview for The Scotsman (27/4). And reviews are now coming in: 'This book not only illuminates Selkirk's five years as a solitary castaway - the experience inspired Robinson Crusoe, though Defoe did not include any reference to sexual congress with goats - but also probes the circumstances that led the disputatious Selkirk to this predicament and what happened to him afterwards'Independent "The gripping and true story of Alexander Selkirk, more famous as Defoe's Robinson Crusoe." Daily Telegraph "His story still holds thefascination that inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe... meticulously researched." Daily Mail 'To Souhami, the island itself is a character, its flora and fauna and dramatic weather changes so evocatively described...Butshe is good at all levels: delving into contemporary sources she explores Selkirk's aggressive, resourceful and complex character, and writes vividly of the horrors of shipboard life and the venality of some of those who set sail in search of riches'Sunday Times Souhami tells the story of the real-life Robinson Crusoe in terse, well-judged prose, and explores some of the ambiguities of his exile: although desperate to be rescued, he also achieved a kind of spiritual at-oneness with the island. She also provides many colourful details about eighteenth-century sea-life: the horrific illnesses and injuries, thevicious squabbles, and the general contempt for human - especially non-British - life'Observer 'Souhami's research into contemporary political and maritime matters is admirably wide ranging'The Times "Whitbread biog of the year, Diana Souhami's examination of Alexander Selkirk and Robinson Crusoe is a glittering assembly." Time Out - Paperback of the Week. '...an unusual and engrossing book...It is a great tale and Souhami tells it crisply and well.'Sunday Telegraph

About the Author
Diana Souhami is the author of many widely acclaimed books, and she has also written plays for radio and television. She won the Whitbread Biography Award for Selkirk's Island.

Customer Reviews

Stranger than fiction
Robinson Crusoe is one of the most famous novels in the English language, although many people find that actually reading it is a fairly tedious enterprise; all that Protestant journal-keeping, all that blather about providence, all that endless marshalling of resources. But the story is a fantastic one, and a true one, too. Alexander Selkirk, a sailor from a small Scottish port town, found himself stranded on Juan Fernandez island for 4 years, and only made it home after being rescued by a passing British vessel. His story, which Daniel Defoe heard second-hand, was soon turned into the famous novel - but the true account, which Diana Souhami tells here with great skill and insight, is far more revealing than Defoe's 'original'. Details of Selkirk's daily life are brought home vividly, as are some of his thoughts and fears, such as his terror of being eaten by the dozens of cats that kept him company on the island. The historical context is well handled, too, and you find yourself learning a great deal about early 18th-century commerce and navigation as you go along. Selkirk's Island deservedly won the 2001 Whitbread Book Prize.

an entertaining, absorbing read
I loved this book. One of those you almost dont buy, almost dont keep going past the first few pages (a lot of eco stuff about the island), but then suddenly you are gripped and you never want it to end. Its an unusual mixture of meticulously researched history of privateering voyages to loot Spanish ships in the 1700s, and a biography of both Alexander Selkirk and the island he is marooned on, Juan Fernandez. Souhami is very good at everything, she chops backwards and forwards in time, throws in Darwin, literary London, eighteenth century contractural law, and plenty on the enduring vigour of the island (there is a touching photo of her perched on Selkirk's lookout point) and somehow manages to make you care about it all. A very deserving award winner. You learn a lot. The way Selkirk is affected by the island is very moving.

Slow start but gets very interesitng
My advice to anyone considering buying this book is to go ahead and do it. It will be money well spent. The author does a good job in relating Selkirks story, but what I found even more interesting were the events prior to and subsequent to his abandonment.

This is a good read. I was sorry when it was finished.