To the Ends of the Earth
Dreaming on Desolation
Island
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BOOKS
The Arch of Kerguelen:
Voyage to the island of desolation by Jean-Paul Kauffmann (trans.
Patricia Clancy) (Four Walls Eight Windows, 2000) £15.63.
Most books about the island are in French and out of print, making reading
up on the subject rather difficult. According to amazon.com, this one
is about to be published (but there is no mention of it on the American
publisher's website).
Below the Convergence:
Voyages towards Antarctica 1699-1839 by Alan Gurney (Pimlico, 1998)
£10.
The story of the early British, American and Russian expeditions to Antarctica
– from the astronomer Halley's voyage in the Paramore in 1699
to the sealer John Balleny's 1839 voyage in the Eliza Scott –
all in search of land, fur or elephant seals and all undertaken in terrible
conditions.
Captain James Cook
by Richard Hough (Coronet, 1995) £7.99.
James Cook was the last of the romantic navigators. In his relatively
short life, he voyaged to the eastern and western seaboards of America,
the north and south Pacific, the Arctic and Antarctic (when he dubbed
Kerguelen 'Desolation Island'), New Zealand and Australia. This biography
offers insight into one of the world's greatest mariners.
Voyage to the Southern
Ocean: The letters of Lieutenant William Reynolds from the US Exploring
Expedition, 1838-1842 edited by Anne Hoffman Cleaver and E Jeffrey
Stann (Naval Institute Press, 1988) £29.95.
Letters written home by a young lieutenant, documenting the four-year
US Navy Exploring Expedition (Wilkes Expedition). It also interweaves
entries from both his official and personal journal and responses from
home.
Inca Kola by
Matthew Parris (Phoenix Press, 1993) £6.99.
Read about another of Matthew Parris's adventures, this time to Peru with
three friends.
WEBSITES
The Kerguelen Islands
www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/kerguelen/kerguelen_islands.html
Great site by Paul Carroll, demonstrating his (amateur) fascination with
sub-Antarctic islands. Lots of information about Kerguelen and its archipelago,
especially its history and the Kerguelen cabbage, plus good maps and pictures.
Kerguelen Archipelago
www.crozet.demon.co.uk/kerg.htm
Information about the island, its discovery and exploration, and the wildlife
found there.
Mer et Voyages
www.meretvoyages.com
French-language travel company site where you can get information on the
voyages of the Marion-Dufresne to Kerguelen – dates, prices,
what you can see when you get there. You can also reach the company by
post, phone, fax and e-mail:
Mer et Voyages
9, rue Notre Dames des Victoires
75002 Paris
Tel: 33 1 49 26 93 33
Fax: 33 1 42 96 29 39
E-mail: info@mer-et-voyages.com
FILMS
The Admirable Crichton
(1957): directed by Lewis Gilbert, starring Kenneth More, Cecil Parker,
Sally Ann Howes, Diane Cilento.
When Lord Loam and his family are shipwrecked on a desert island, his
butler Crichton (More) proves to be the undisputed leader. From the play
by J M Barrie.
The Adventures
of Robinson Crusoe (1953): directed by Luis Buñuel, starring
Dan O'Herlihy, Jaime Fernandez.
Daniel Defoe's story of a 17th-century sailor marooned on a desert island
is given a twist by the Spanish master Buñuel.
And Then There
Were None (1945): directed by René Clair, starring Walter Huston,
Barry Fitzgerald, Louis Hayward.
Ten people are invited to a remote island, only to be murdered one by
one. From the novel by Agatha Christie.
Island in the Sky
(1953): directed by William Wellman, starring John Wayne, Lloyd Nolan,
Walter Abel.
When a transport plane crashes on an Arctic island north of Greenland,
the survivors must face the cold and the wind until help arrives.
Matthew's
dream
Kerguelen
Island
A
history of Kerguelen
Five
lonely places
Matthew
Parris
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