In 1858, Alfred Wallace, while laid up with malaria in the middle of his long Moluccan sojourn, wrote a brief essay which made its way to Charles Darwin, who had been searching for the solution to a problem for two decades.
When Darwin finally published ''On the Origin of Species'' a couple of years later, he gave credit to Wallace, who nonetheless faded, unprotesting, into relative obscurity.
Wallace had already been on one major expedition before his Indonesian journey, a voyage to Brazil, which ended badly when most of the bird and insect samples he was carrying were lost in a fire on the ship taking him back to England. But his eight years in the Spice Islands, one of the world's major hotbeds of bio-diversity, rank among the major expeditions of scientific discovery.
Tim Severin decided to retrace his voyage. He and his crew spent several months in the Spice Islands, stopping at Wallace's ports of call from the Aru Islands in the east to Sulawesi in the west, taking pictures, recording sightings of butterflies and birds, checking out the environmental record and interviewing local officials.
''The Spice Islands Voyage'' is a travelogue-biography, a balanced combination of historical re-enactment and contemporary adventure, which tells the story of that ground-breaking voyage.
But as Severin follows Wallace’s journey, he starts to find a darker truth: that species are not being protected but extorted.
How involved was Wallace and how can he end the abuse?
Severin’s hero of Alfred Wallace is beginning to look less heroic and more suspicious…
In ‘The Spice Islands Voyage’, world renowned explorer Tim Severin goes in search of the real story behind Alfred Wallace’s expeditions.
Praise for Tim Severin:
‘Full of insights…retraces a journey through places of fabulous natural and cultural diversity…should inspire new readers to discover the remarkable writings of Wallace himself’ – INDEPENDENT
‘Entertaining…the prose has an easy, regular rhythm, like the beating of oars on water; and Wallace himself steps off the pagesa bumbling, talented and hugely likeable figure’ - Sara Wheeler, MAIL ON SUNDAY
‘A great read — a modern-day adventure in an exact replica of the boat that carried my hero and biological guru 140 years before’ - David Bellamy
‘An excellent book … a lasting monument’ - THE TIMES
‘Tim Severin is one of the last of the old-style explorers…His deeds speak to us of the purity of achievement in an age where experience has become blunted by comfort and complacency. We watch them, awed … A vivid picture of the aching space of the ocean} the loneliness of the long-distance sailor’ The TIMES
‘The story of this courageous quest is gripping and a wonderful armchair escape to real adventure from an increasingly mundane world’ SUNDAY EXPRESS
‘An extraordinary experiment, and by implication a study of man’s desire to set himself gruelling tasks and to set to them with great ingenuity and courage…This well-illustrated book is awash with nautical and hydrographic detail, which he manages to make interesting and accessible even to the avowed landlubber…Fascinating’ SCOTSMAN
Tim Severin is an explorer, film-maker and lecturer, who has made many expeditions, from crossing the Atlantic in a medieval leather boat to going out in search of Moby Dick and Robinson Crusoe. He has won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Book of the Sea Award, a Christopher Prize, and the literary medal of the Academie de la Marine. He books include ‘Crusader’, ‘The Sindbad Voyage’, ‘The Brendan Voyage’, ‘The Jason Voyage’ and ‘The Ulysses Voyage’.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7.
When Darwin finally published ''On the Origin of Species'' a couple of years later, he gave credit to Wallace, who nonetheless faded, unprotesting, into relative obscurity.
Wallace had already been on one major expedition before his Indonesian journey, a voyage to Brazil, which ended badly when most of the bird and insect samples he was carrying were lost in a fire on the ship taking him back to England. But his eight years in the Spice Islands, one of the world's major hotbeds of bio-diversity, rank among the major expeditions of scientific discovery.
Tim Severin decided to retrace his voyage. He and his crew spent several months in the Spice Islands, stopping at Wallace's ports of call from the Aru Islands in the east to Sulawesi in the west, taking pictures, recording sightings of butterflies and birds, checking out the environmental record and interviewing local officials.
''The Spice Islands Voyage'' is a travelogue-biography, a balanced combination of historical re-enactment and contemporary adventure, which tells the story of that ground-breaking voyage.
But as Severin follows Wallace’s journey, he starts to find a darker truth: that species are not being protected but extorted.
How involved was Wallace and how can he end the abuse?
Severin’s hero of Alfred Wallace is beginning to look less heroic and more suspicious…
In ‘The Spice Islands Voyage’, world renowned explorer Tim Severin goes in search of the real story behind Alfred Wallace’s expeditions.
Praise for Tim Severin:
‘Full of insights…retraces a journey through places of fabulous natural and cultural diversity…should inspire new readers to discover the remarkable writings of Wallace himself’ – INDEPENDENT
‘Entertaining…the prose has an easy, regular rhythm, like the beating of oars on water; and Wallace himself steps off the pagesa bumbling, talented and hugely likeable figure’ - Sara Wheeler, MAIL ON SUNDAY
‘A great read — a modern-day adventure in an exact replica of the boat that carried my hero and biological guru 140 years before’ - David Bellamy
‘An excellent book … a lasting monument’ - THE TIMES
‘Tim Severin is one of the last of the old-style explorers…His deeds speak to us of the purity of achievement in an age where experience has become blunted by comfort and complacency. We watch them, awed … A vivid picture of the aching space of the ocean} the loneliness of the long-distance sailor’ The TIMES
‘The story of this courageous quest is gripping and a wonderful armchair escape to real adventure from an increasingly mundane world’ SUNDAY EXPRESS
‘An extraordinary experiment, and by implication a study of man’s desire to set himself gruelling tasks and to set to them with great ingenuity and courage…This well-illustrated book is awash with nautical and hydrographic detail, which he manages to make interesting and accessible even to the avowed landlubber…Fascinating’ SCOTSMAN
Tim Severin is an explorer, film-maker and lecturer, who has made many expeditions, from crossing the Atlantic in a medieval leather boat to going out in search of Moby Dick and Robinson Crusoe. He has won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Book of the Sea Award, a Christopher Prize, and the literary medal of the Academie de la Marine. He books include ‘Crusader’, ‘The Sindbad Voyage’, ‘The Brendan Voyage’, ‘The Jason Voyage’ and ‘The Ulysses Voyage’.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7.
