A Sense Of The World - Couverture rigide

Roberts, Jason

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1846178452 ISBN 13 : 9781846178450

Editeur : Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd, 2007

A propos du livre

Revue de presse

Jason Roberts has brought something great into the world. To know ourselves at all, we have to know about people like James Holman, and this is a brilliantly executed biography of this extraordinary, almost unbelievable man. Where the story of the blind traveller could have been maudlin or corny or draped in historical cobwebs, A Sense of the World is alive, magisterial, suspenseful, frequently funny. Full of wonder and with a commanding sense of narrative, this is one of the best and most life-affirming biographies I've ever read"
DAVE EGGERS
‘Roberts’ book is an excellent read...One understands that Roberts feels compelled to assert that the ‘story may at times seem improbable but it is true’. A Sense of the World would be a good read, even if the facts were in dispute, but they aren’t. Holman had an enviable capacity to travel with the conviction that he ‘was not wasting his time’ and we should count him, therefore, as one of the better men who had ‘done before’. He died in 1857 at the age of 70. A century and a half later his story has found an author with an enviable ability to tell the tale’
The Spectator 29/7

‘Jason Roberts’ looks at the life of James Holman, a blind lieutenant who trailblazed across Asia in the 19th century’
Wanderlust Magazine August issue
‘In telling Holman’s story, Roberts has to make an imaginative journey, and a leap of faith, of his own: he inhabits the mind and body of a blind man in the middle of the 19th century with enviable tact and skill. Most impressively, he reconstructs Holman’s idiosyncratic adaptation to his sudden disability, striking his cane against the ground to effect an extraordinarily sensitive sort of echolocation’
Daily Telegraph
‘I must admit at this point to owing Holman’s biographer, Jason Roberts, an apology. The bald facts of Holman’s life are so incredible that my initial reaction was to wonder if this was a spoof, an elaborate hoax designed to expose confusions in our attitudes to disability... Roberts has done Holman justice and brought to light the full story of one of the most remarkable lives ever lived. It is an inspirational tale and this is a book that will challenge preconceptions in sighted people, perhaps in the non-sighted too’
Guardian Book of the Week 12/8
''Roberts crafts Holman's uplifting tale into an energetic narrative, brimming with fascinating detail, leaving you feeling that anything is possible' - METRO, 16/8
‘It took him years, and a serious setback was when he was deported from Siberia by a suspicious tsar, but he made it. He found he could still steer a boat in a storm, and rid a horse, and hunt wild elephants, and attract beautiful women. In Africa he had a river named after him. In Australia he joined a group of explorers in the mountains of New South Wales. Towards the end of his life the machinations of rivals, the scepticism of critics and above all the passage of time made his kind of exploration seem old-fashioned; but he seems to have remained a lovable and contented man. Jason Robert’s admiration for Holman is unbounded, but he makes his case well.’
Sunday Telegraph
‘Holman finds many wonders along his subjects tapping way’
The Times 5/5
‘Holman’s curiosity, his courage, his spirit, are inspiring. Bafflingly, he seems to have been forgotten by history. All credit to Jason Roberts for rescuing him from undeserved obscurity’
Mail on Sunday 27/5

Quatrième de couverture

'One of the most remarkable lives ever lived . . . .Inspirational' Guardian
'An excellent read . . . There is much in this engrossing tale to delight us' Spectator
He was known simply as the 'Blind Traveller' - a solitary, sightless adventurer who, astonishingly, fought the slave trade in Africa, survived a frozen captivity in Siberia, hunted rogue elephants in Ceylon and helped chart the Australian outback. James Holman (1786-1857) became 'one of the greatest wonders of the world he so sagaciously explored': in his day a celebrity, a bestselling author, but one who outlived his fame.
A Sense of the World is a spellbinding and moving rediscovery of one of history's most epic lives. Drawing on meticulous research, Jason Roberts ushers us into Holman's uniquely vivid sensory realm, then sweeps us away on an extraordinary journey across the known world during the Age of Exploration. Rich with suspense, humour, international intrigue and unforgettable characters, this is a story to awaken our own senses of wonder and awe.
'In telling Holman's story, Roberts has to make an imaginative journey, and a leap of faith, of his own: he inhabits the mind and body of a blind man in the middle of the nineteenth century with enviable tact and skill' Sunday Telegraph
'Holman is an extraordinary character to bring back to our attention, but Roberts has done more than that: he has made Holman the spinning centre of a story that gathers in all manner of intriguing ideas, people and things . . . It's what biography, an often dubious enterprise, can do at its best' London Review of Books
£7.99
Pocket Books
BIOGRAPHY
0-7434-6805-8

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2007
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1846178452
• ISBN 13: 9781846178450
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 544
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible