Continuing my literary march across the world's southern oceans, I've simultaneously picked up two books to poke through now that I'm finished with The Reader's Companion to South Africa.
First up is Skeleton Coast, by John Marsh. It's the tale of a shipwreck and subsequent rescue off the coast of Namibia, also known as the Skeleton Coast for reasons which I think are at least partially obvious from the subject of the book. (There are also a lot of whales that wash up dead along that shore, also inspiring its name.)
Skeleton Coast looks like a pretty short read. It's not a great candidate to carry around with me, though, as it was published in 1954 and requires a bit of TLC when it comes to handling.So for my walking-around book, I have the ebook version of The Emperor's Last Island. Napoleon is famous for many things, among them that he was exiled from France not once, but twice. The first time, he was cast out by the British after several notable failures in his Napoleonic Wars campaign and was sent to the island of Elba in 1814. Somehow, despite being under heavy British guard, he escaped and returned to France. After being soundly defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon was again exiled in 1815, this time to the distant and isolated island of St. Helena, located smack in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. Napoleon died there in 1821.The Emperor's Last Island, as best as I can tell, is a recounting based on what historical records exist of what those six years on St. Helena were like for the exiled Frenchman.
No comments:
Post a Comment