Product Description

Admiral of the Fleet Lord 'Jacky' Fisher (1841-1920) was one of the greatest naval reformers in history. He was also a colossal figure to contemporaries, both loved and loathed, a man of exceptional charm, presence and charisma. Since the late 1940s, Jan Morris has been haunted by his face - with its startling combination of the suave, the sneering and the self-amused. This evocation is both biography and a love letter, a perfect expression of her passionate interest in mavericks and outsiders, in travel, ships and the glorious pageantry of the British Empire in its prime.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #206753 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Tremendously enjoyable
It's not a biography, it's not a hagiography (we're shown his warts, as well) - it is a story about an infatuation. And Morris' wonderfully ironic, non-detached writing is again a delight, writing about John Arbuthnot 'Jacky' Fisher, legend, upstart, First Sea Lord, manic dancer, inspirer of Winston Churchill, the man who made Royal Navy change from old to new, from coal to oil; who invented armoured trains, and destroyers; and who thought (before World war 1) that the airplane and submarines would be the future.

I learnt a lot, not just about her infatuation with Fisher, but also that HMS Dreadnought was precisely the same length as Westminster Abbey, and therefore 'bound to be all right'.

This is such a nice book. It is irritating that the Faber&Faber paperback version has rather bad printing, with many a line with all the letters shifted a pixel above/below some strange equator - I almost subtracted a star for that. But this writing surely deserves five, even when it is rather badly reproduced. When she talks about HMS Renown, 'suavely awned', or about William Watson, 'one of the less immortal of the Edwardians', I am charmed.
Churchill said that being with Fisher was like breathing ozone, and Morris conveys that very well. By the time, towards the end, when she writes about 'our Jacky', she's absolutely right; she has dragged you to her private window on this amazing person, she has shared that window with you, and she has utterly convinced you. Well - she did me. A delight!