Product Description

A rip-roaring swashbuckler about a forgotten 17th century English hero who, starting as a poor, piratical buccaneer, became a famed round-the-world explorer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32892 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
William Dampier, (1651-1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research. Dampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the world's oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier's notes in his own work; was the first travel writer: A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe. A man full of contradictions: he who achieved so much 'blew it' later in life, declining into scandal, failure and even farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of his life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his exquisite refinement of mind. A classic example of the best narrative history

From the Back Cover
William Dampier is one of England’s forgotten heroes. In 1676, he started his career as a poor buccaneer, preying on ships on the Spanish Main.  He could easily have ended up on the gallows for piracy. Instead, his sense of adventure and curiosity about the world around him led him to become the first person to circumnavigate the world three times, and to map the winds and the currents of the world’s oceans. He landed in Australia eighty years before Cook and visited the Galapagos Islands one hundred and fifty years before Darwin. He wrote the first bestselling travel books, which inspired Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and enriched the English language with many new words, from ‘barbeque’ and ‘avocado’ to ‘sub-species’.

A curious man in a curious age, now all but forgotten in his native country, William Dampier combined a swashbuckling life of adventure with remarkable scientific achievements. In A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, Diana and Michael Preston reveal, in a compelling narrative, the story of a uniquely English hero.

About the Author
Unknown Person:
Lindsey Gardiner completed her degree in Printed Textiles at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee University in Dundee, Scotland, and went on to do an MA at Winchester school of Art. She wrote her first book Here come Poppy and Max (Orchard, 2000) whilst still at college and has never looked back. Her other titles include: When Poppy Grows Up (Orchard, 2001); Pinky and Blue (2001). She works as a part-time lecturer in Printed Textiles at Dundee University. This is her first book for Random House.

Diana And Michael Preston:
Diana Preston is an Oxford-trained historian, writer, and broadcaster who lives in London. She is the author of The Road to Culloden Moor; A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole; The Boxer Rebellion and Wilful Murder: The Sinking of the Lusitania. Michael Preston, Diana Preston’s husband, read English at Oxford University and is now an historian and traveller.

Customer Reviews

The first round-the-world backpacker ?
Well written, especially in the earlier sections where there is perhaps more material from Dampier himself to rely upon.

I picked this up by chance needing something to keep me occupied while travelling. It is worth far more than just some airport novel. The book provides a fascinating view of the blurred reality between 17th century piracy, privateering, and defence of the realm. Moreover, it does so from the point of view of the (extra)ordinary seaman.

If your taste is for history or biography excluding footballers then this should not disappoint.