Posts Tagged ‘Lady Franklin’
Unique Arctic collection going, going . . . .
The Virtual Silent Auction at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society is coming to a close. You have until Nov. 16 at 9 p.m. to bid on a variety of items and activities, including some spectacular adventures going (rightly) for many thousands. Among more modest items, you will find a collection of signed copies of my…
Read MoreExplorer John Rae turns up in latest Ripcord Adventure Journal
A lovely bit of mix-and-match turns up in the latest Ripcord Adventure Journal. The illustration above, found as a double-truck on pages 21 and 22, combines the new Stromness statue of John Rae with the Hall of Clestrain in which the explorer grew up. Based in Ireland, backed by the World Explorers Bureau, Ripcord is…
Read MoreHow Lady Franklin led Charles Dickens to disgrace himself
In Lady Franklin’s Revenge, I devote 130 pages to showing not only how Lady Franklin orchestrated the search for Sir John Franklin, but how she manipulated public opinion after explorer John Rae returned with the first news of the fate of her husband’s expedition. In this excerpt, we find her getting Charles Dickens involved. .…
Read MoreThe woman who launched the search for Sir John Franklin
“Denied a role in Victorian England’s male-dominated society, Jane Franklin (1791–1875) took her revenge by seizing control of that most masculine of pursuits, Arctic exploration, and shaping its history to her own ends.” This clarification went missing during my own final edit of the book, to my lasting mortification. So it’s great to see it…
Read MoreArctic Explorer John Rae nears Westminster Abbey
A recent flurry of newspaper reports made it official. They appeared in The Scotsman, The Orcadian, The Glasgow Sunday Herald, and The Times (Scottish edition). Arctic explorer John Rae is soon to be recognized in Westminster Abbey. David Ross, Highland Correspondent for the Herald, produced a quote from the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverand…
Read MoreThe Collected McGoogan: 10 titles, 13 books!
Limited edition. Our Hero has put together two complete sets. The Collected McGoogan comprises ten titles, thirteen books, all signed by the author (to you if you wish). Each set includes one copy of How the Scots Invented Canada, Fatal Passage, Ancient Mariner, Lady Franklin’s Revenge, Race to the Polar Sea, Calypso Warrior, Chasing Safiya,…
Read MoreWhy John Rae and NOT Sir John Franklin
So folks are (still!) debating the accomplishments of John Franklin and John Rae over at Russell Potter’s blog, where I have been driven to offer the following thoughts . . . .:http://visionsnorth.blogspot.ca/2012/09/a-navigable-northwest-passage.html Greetings, Russell. Nicely done. But we do not yet see eye to eye. We agree, I think, that John Rae discovered Rae Strait.…
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