Title

Bite Studio - Visual Editor
Random House Speakers

The English Dane: From King of Iceland to Tasmanian Convict

Sarah Bakewell

(Enlarge Image)

Published by Vintage, part of Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback

£9.99

Buy now

This book is also available as:

Availability

Available for dispatch within 1-2 working days

Details

EAN: 9780099438069
Published: 2 Mar 2006

-

About the book

Synopsis

This gripping nineteenth-century adventure stars Jorgen Jorgenson, who ran away to sea at fourteen and began a brilliant career by sailing to establish the first colony in Tasmania. Twists of fortune then found him captaining a warship for Napoleon before joining a British trading voyage to Iceland, where he staged an outrageous coup and ruled the country for two months.

Much lay ahead, from imprisonment in the hulks to patronage by Joseph Banks and travels in Europe as a British spy. But Jorgenson was dogged by his own excesses, and ended up transported as a convict to the very colony he helped to found. Here he reinvented himself again as an explorer, and, despite his sympathy for the people, was caught up in the terrible Aboriginal clearances. Using unpublished sources and letters, Sarah Bakewell tells his astonishing tale with dazzling verve.

Recommend this book

Add your recommendation

Only registered users can recommend books. Please use the buttons below to either create a new account, or sign-in to an existing account.

Register here or Sign in here

Press

What the critics say

Bakewell is superbly matched to the task. Her account of the world encountered by Jorgenson is as rich and nuanced as her description of his life
- Independent

Precise, amusing and intriguing. A vivid and moving portrait of an extraordinary but flawed man... A terrific book
- Daily Telegraph

Sarah Bakewell has a fine story to tell, and she is its skilled servant...A wonderful, intelligently told story
- Guardian

Splendid... An extraordinary story brilliantly told
- Australian

An accomplished book
- Sunday Times

Unsettling and powerful
- Literary Review

About the Author

Sarah Bakewell had a wandering childhood in Europe, Australia and England. After studying at the University of Essex, she was a curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library before becoming a full-time writer, publishing her highly acclaimed biographies The Smart and How To Live. She lives in London, where she teaches creative writing at City University and catalogues rare book collections for the National Trust.. www.sarahbakewell.com

Sarah Bakewell

More about Sarah Bakewell

PageId: 16121 UserId: 5
This website makes use of cookies. See our Privacy Policy for more information.