Book description
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.
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.
