The secret life of James Cook / Graeme Lay.
Momo rauemi: TextWhakaahuatanga: 368 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmISBN:- 9781775540120
- 177554012X
- NZ823.2 23
Momo tuemi | Tauwāhi onāianei | Kohinga | Tau karanga | Tau tārua | Tūnga | Rā oti | Waeherepae | Ngā puringa tuemi | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New Zealand fiction | Stratford Fiction | Fiction | LAY (Tirotirohia te whatanga(Opens below)) | 1 | Wātea | A0069743X |
Ngā puringa katoa: 0
Novel.
"A fictionalised account of the famous navigator's early life, 'The Secret Life of James Cook' evokes Cook's youthful ambitions, his early naval career, his marriage to Elizabeth and their family life"--Cover flap.
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Tākupu kiritaki mō 18/08/2014
This book and its sequel James Cook's New World' are accounts of the life of this justly famous sailor, navigator and explorer put together as a novel. Written by NZ author, Graeme Lay, this strategy works splendidly, bringing the both the private and professional life of this remarkable man brilliantly to life. Equally, it highlights the very real drawbacks of the life of a seaman in the 18th century, including the great difficulties and sorrows it caused his wife, Elizabeth, and his children. Few of his children survived to adulthood and their mother had to bear these losses on her own. The books do not minimise these problems in any way but they also show the great pleasure and satisfaction that Cook gained from his life. His great care for those under him, including all the common sailors who sailed with him, shows him to have been a man of high principles and who lived by those principles. Cook's great love of the sea and his equally great love for his wife meant that he had to choose between them and, as we know, the sea was the winner. These books are obviously the result of a great deal of research and are written so well that they are very easy to read, gallop along like a good story and, at the same time, a great deal of knowledge of the times, navigation, the sea and sailing is being absorbed by the reader almost without realising it. Lay is a prolific writer in a number of genre and I am surprised that I haven't come across him before. I believe he is writing a third in the series and I will be looking out for this as well as other of his books. I cannot recommend these books too highly, both as great reads and for their insight into the lives of many people who had great influence in the founding of New Zealand.