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Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire – The Last Account of the Vanishing Empire
Simon Winchester, struck by a sudden need to discover exactly what was left of the British Empire, set out across the globe to visit the far-flung islands that are all that remain of what once made Britain great. He traveled 100,000 miles back and forth, from Antarctica to the Caribbean, from the Mediterranean to the Far East, to capture a last glint of imperial glory.
His adventures in these distant and forgotten ends of the earth make compelling, often funny reading and tell a story most of us had thought was over: a tale of the last outposts in Britain's imperial career and those who keep the flag flying.
With a new introduction, this updated edition tells us what has happened to these extraordinary places while the author's been away.
His adventures in these distant and forgotten ends of the earth make compelling, often funny reading and tell a story most of us had thought was over: a tale of the last outposts in Britain's imperial career and those who keep the flag flying.
With a new introduction, this updated edition tells us what has happened to these extraordinary places while the author's been away.
400 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1985
About the author
Simon Winchester
96 books2,380 followersSimon Winchester, OBE, is a British writer, journalist and broadcaster who resides in the United States. Through his career at The Guardian, Winchester covered numerous significant events including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. As an author, Simon Winchester has written or contributed to over a dozen nonfiction books and authored one novel, and his articles appear in several travel publications including Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian Magazine, and National Geographic.
In 1969, Winchester joined The Guardian, first as regional correspondent based in Newcastle upon Tyne, but was later assigned to be the Northern Ireland Correspondent. Winchester's time in Northern Ireland placed him around several events of The Troubles, including the events of Bloody Sunday and the Belfast Hour of Terror.
After leaving Northern Ireland in 1972, Winchester was briefly assigned to Calcutta before becoming The Guardian's American correspondent in Washington, D.C., where Winchester covered news ranging from the end of Richard Nixon's administration to the start of Jimmy Carter's presidency. In 1982, while working as the Chief Foreign Feature Writer for The Sunday Times, Winchester was on location for the invasion of the Falklands Islands by Argentine forces. Suspected of being a spy, Winchester was held as a prisoner in Tierra del Fuego for three months.
Winchester's first book, In Holy Terror, was published by Faber and Faber in 1975. The book drew heavily on his first-hand experiences during the turmoils in Ulster. In 1976, Winchester published his second book, American Heartbeat, which dealt with his personal travels through the American heartland. Winchester's third book, Prison Diary, was a recounting of his imprisonment at Tierra del Fuego during the Falklands War and, as noted by Dr Jules Smith, is responsible for his rise to prominence in the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Winchester produced several travel books, most of which dealt with Asian and Pacific locations including Korea, Hong Kong, and the Yangtze River.
Winchester's first truly successful book was The Professor and the Madman (1998), published by Penguin UK as The Surgeon of Crowthorne. Telling the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the book was a New York Times Best Seller, and Mel Gibson optioned the rights to a film version, likely to be directed by John Boorman.
Though Winchester still writes travel books, he has repeated the narrative non-fiction form he used in The Professor and the Madman several times, many of which ended in books placed on best sellers lists. His 2001 book, The Map that Changed the World, focused on geologist William Smith and was Whichester's second New York Times best seller. The year 2003 saw Winchester release another book on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Meaning of Everything, as well as the best-selling Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. Winchester followed Krakatoa's volcano with San Francisco's 1906 earthquake in A Crack in the Edge of the World. The Man Who Loved China (2008) retells the life of eccentric Cambridge scholar Joseph Needham, who helped to expose China to the western world. Winchester's latest book, The Alice Behind Wonderland, was released March 11, 2011.
- source Wikipedia
In 1969, Winchester joined The Guardian, first as regional correspondent based in Newcastle upon Tyne, but was later assigned to be the Northern Ireland Correspondent. Winchester's time in Northern Ireland placed him around several events of The Troubles, including the events of Bloody Sunday and the Belfast Hour of Terror.
After leaving Northern Ireland in 1972, Winchester was briefly assigned to Calcutta before becoming The Guardian's American correspondent in Washington, D.C., where Winchester covered news ranging from the end of Richard Nixon's administration to the start of Jimmy Carter's presidency. In 1982, while working as the Chief Foreign Feature Writer for The Sunday Times, Winchester was on location for the invasion of the Falklands Islands by Argentine forces. Suspected of being a spy, Winchester was held as a prisoner in Tierra del Fuego for three months.
Winchester's first book, In Holy Terror, was published by Faber and Faber in 1975. The book drew heavily on his first-hand experiences during the turmoils in Ulster. In 1976, Winchester published his second book, American Heartbeat, which dealt with his personal travels through the American heartland. Winchester's third book, Prison Diary, was a recounting of his imprisonment at Tierra del Fuego during the Falklands War and, as noted by Dr Jules Smith, is responsible for his rise to prominence in the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Winchester produced several travel books, most of which dealt with Asian and Pacific locations including Korea, Hong Kong, and the Yangtze River.
Winchester's first truly successful book was The Professor and the Madman (1998), published by Penguin UK as The Surgeon of Crowthorne. Telling the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the book was a New York Times Best Seller, and Mel Gibson optioned the rights to a film version, likely to be directed by John Boorman.
Though Winchester still writes travel books, he has repeated the narrative non-fiction form he used in The Professor and the Madman several times, many of which ended in books placed on best sellers lists. His 2001 book, The Map that Changed the World, focused on geologist William Smith and was Whichester's second New York Times best seller. The year 2003 saw Winchester release another book on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Meaning of Everything, as well as the best-selling Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. Winchester followed Krakatoa's volcano with San Francisco's 1906 earthquake in A Crack in the Edge of the World. The Man Who Loved China (2008) retells the life of eccentric Cambridge scholar Joseph Needham, who helped to expose China to the western world. Winchester's latest book, The Alice Behind Wonderland, was released March 11, 2011.
- source Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 7, 2011
Ao dealbar do século XX, o sol não se punha nos vastos domínios do império britânico. No final do mesmo século, com Hong Kong prestes a ser devolvida à China, ainda é legítimo dizer o mesmo, embora das vastas extensões territoriais americanas, africanas e asiáticas apenas reste uma enorme lista de pequenos territórios na sua maior parte desabitados, símbolos de um poderio desvanecido. É uma busca destes vestígios imperiais que Winchester se propõe neste livro encantador, com uma regra: de fora ficam as centenas de rochedos e ilhotas desabitadas que fazem parte dos domínios de sua majestade. O autor propõe-se apenas visitar as colónias britânicas ainda habitadas.
Não é uma jornada fácil. Os acidentes geopolíticos e as distâncias envolvidas tornaram esta viagem numa epopeia de anos. Se alguns locais são de acesso fácil, alguns dos mais remotos territórios governados por Londres são acessíveis com periodicidade anual. Ao longo deste livro Winchester encontra-se numa Hong Kong em transição de governantes, nas Falklands invadidas pela Argentina e numa Gibraltar pré-espaço schengen, que obriga a um pulo a Tânger para percorrer os poucos quilómetros que separam Algeciras do Rochedo.
Winchester atira-se à tarefa procurando uma certa nostalgia colonial de plácidos governadores, símbolos antiquados e uma certa decadência elegante. A realidade revela-lhe uma diversidade díspare, desde os modernos prédios do paraíso fiscal das Ilhas Caimão, passando pelo turimo massificado das Bahamas, a anglicidade atlântica de Tristão da Cunha, Ascenção, Santa Helena e as Falkland, o isolamento das Pitcairn e as bizarrias geopolíticas das Ilhas Virgens, Anguilla e Gibraltar. Embora procure uma voz distante, nota-se no autor um certo fascínio pelas colónias atlânticas, que descreve como literais extensões de uma inglaterra desaparecida nos rochedos do oceano, e assume uma voz crítica perante as incongruências governativas das colónias caribenhas. Nota-se uma empatia perante populações que se sentem historicamente britânicas mas que são quase esquecidas pelos governos londrinos. Mas o foco de indignação vai para o anacrónico BIOT, o território britânico do oceano índico, cuja população foi deportada para as ilhas mauricias para que a marinha americana tivesse ao seu dispor uma base aeronaval na ilha de Diego Garcia.
Misturando jornalismo com opinião e literatura de viagem, Outposts olha com nostalgia para as relíquias de um império desvanecido mantendo uma visão crítica sobe a legitimidade do conceito de colónias num mundo decididamente pós-colonial, retratando até que ponto antigos donos de impérios são capazes de ir para manter alguns parcos vestígios que asseguram uma certa simbologia.
Não é uma jornada fácil. Os acidentes geopolíticos e as distâncias envolvidas tornaram esta viagem numa epopeia de anos. Se alguns locais são de acesso fácil, alguns dos mais remotos territórios governados por Londres são acessíveis com periodicidade anual. Ao longo deste livro Winchester encontra-se numa Hong Kong em transição de governantes, nas Falklands invadidas pela Argentina e numa Gibraltar pré-espaço schengen, que obriga a um pulo a Tânger para percorrer os poucos quilómetros que separam Algeciras do Rochedo.
Winchester atira-se à tarefa procurando uma certa nostalgia colonial de plácidos governadores, símbolos antiquados e uma certa decadência elegante. A realidade revela-lhe uma diversidade díspare, desde os modernos prédios do paraíso fiscal das Ilhas Caimão, passando pelo turimo massificado das Bahamas, a anglicidade atlântica de Tristão da Cunha, Ascenção, Santa Helena e as Falkland, o isolamento das Pitcairn e as bizarrias geopolíticas das Ilhas Virgens, Anguilla e Gibraltar. Embora procure uma voz distante, nota-se no autor um certo fascínio pelas colónias atlânticas, que descreve como literais extensões de uma inglaterra desaparecida nos rochedos do oceano, e assume uma voz crítica perante as incongruências governativas das colónias caribenhas. Nota-se uma empatia perante populações que se sentem historicamente britânicas mas que são quase esquecidas pelos governos londrinos. Mas o foco de indignação vai para o anacrónico BIOT, o território britânico do oceano índico, cuja população foi deportada para as ilhas mauricias para que a marinha americana tivesse ao seu dispor uma base aeronaval na ilha de Diego Garcia.
Misturando jornalismo com opinião e literatura de viagem, Outposts olha com nostalgia para as relíquias de um império desvanecido mantendo uma visão crítica sobe a legitimidade do conceito de colónias num mundo decididamente pós-colonial, retratando até que ponto antigos donos de impérios são capazes de ir para manter alguns parcos vestígios que asseguram uma certa simbologia.
Displaying 1 of 1 review