The Wide Wide Sea
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:11th Apr '24
£25.00
Available for immediate dispatch.
From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, the epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, culminating in Captain James Cook's death
‘An astounding tale . . . recreated in swashbuckling detail . . . Sides delivers it with narrative urgency. The cast of characters is a joy’Sunday Times
‘An enthralling account of Captain Cook’s final, fatal voyage… An excellent new book’ The Economist
‘A rollicking good read, with a tone that reminds me of David Grann’s recent tale of the 1741 Wager shipwreck . . . riveting’ Daily Telegraph
'Vivid and propulsive' New York Times
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On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach in Hawaii, Cook was killed – beaten and stabbed in a conflict with the indigenous population.
What brought Cook to these final moments, so at odds with his reputation? Renowned for his humane leadership, dedication to science and the curiosity and respect, not judgement, with which he greeted societies that were new to him, Cook had already mapped huge swathes of the Pacific and initiated first European contact with numerous native peoples.
The stated mission for his third voyage was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London high society, to his home islands. But Cook carried secret orders to venture north, to discover the fabled Northwest Passage and chart and claim lands before Britain’s imperial rivals. And Cook himself was different on his final, fatal voyage.
Deeply researched and vividly told, The Wide Wide Sea is at once a ferociously-paced, epic adventure and a searching examination of the consequences of the Age of Exploration from a master storyteller.
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‘Sides has written a riveting book, deeply researched, light of touch and always judicious and full-sailed about an exceptional man’s final extraordinary journey’ SPECTATOR
'A wonderful, visceral yarn and an enthralling read, replete with brilliant detail'—ROBERT MCCRUM
PRAISE FOR HAMPTON SIDES
'Enthralling … as gripping as any well-paced thriller but a lot more interesting because it is also true' THE TIMES
‘Stunningly vivid’ MARK BOWDEN,...
An astounding tale * Sunday Times *
A rollicking good read, with a tone that reminds me of David Grann’s recent tale of the 1741 Wager shipwreck . . . riveting * Daily Telegraph *
An enthralling account of Captain Cook’s final, fatal voyage . . . an excellent book * Economist *
A riveting book, deeply researched, light of touch and always judicious and full-sailed about an exceptional man's final extraordinary journey * Spectator *
Vivid and propulsive . . . New Zealand, Tahiti, Kamchatka, Hawaii and London come alive with you-are-there descriptions of gales, crushing ice packs and gun smoke . . . but Sides isn’t just interested in retelling an adventure tale. He also wants to present it from a 21st-century point of view. The Wide Wide Sea fits neatly into a growing genre that includes David Grann’s The Wager and Candice Millard’s River of the Gods' * New York Times *
'Hampton Sides, an acclaimed master of the nonfiction narrative, has taken on Cook’s story and retells it for the 21st century . . . The result is a work that will enthrall Cook’s admirers, inform his critics and entertain everyone in between' * Los Angeles Times *
'With gripping prose, Sides details Cook's increasingly erratic behavior as he explored vast swaths of the Pacific and scrambled to find the fabled Northwest Passage along the ice-choked coast of Alaska. His account lays bare the Age of Exploration's moral perils, which continue to reverbarate today' * Outside Magazine *
'Sides make a persuasive case in 387 pages of diligent, riveting reporting that Cook came as a navigator and mapmaker and in dramatically opening what was known about our world, made us all richer in knowledge' * Associated Press *
'The Wide Wide Sea portrays Cook as a complicated figure driven by instincts and motives that often seem to have been opaque even to him . . . As Cook himself seemed to have realised, and at times lamented, he was but an instrument in a much, much larger scheme' * New Yorker *
ISBN: 9780241437339
Dimensions: 243mm x 160mm x 38mm
Weight: 692g
432 pages