Banks
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Narrated by:
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Patrick Harvey
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By:
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Grantlee Kieza
About this listen
By award-winning best-selling writer Grantlee Kieza, Banks is a rich and rollicking biography of one of Britain's most colourful and successful scientists.
Lust, science, adventure - Joseph Banks and his voyages of discovery.
Explorer, naturalist and president of Britain's Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks was a larger-than-life character best known for his promotion of science. In 1768 Banks joined Captain James Cook's expedition to the South Pacific. The 30,000 specimens he brought back generated enormous interest, as did the sometimes racy written account of the journey, which chronicled his frequent amorous exploits.
Banks' passion for the new and unusual flora of Australia led him to recommend Botany Bay to parliament as an excellent place for a penal settlement, despite the fact the soil was poor and there was no fresh running water, but he later became the foremost expert on everything Australian.
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Overall
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Performance
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Over the Edge of the World
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1519 Magellan and his fleet of five ships set sail from Seville, Spain, to discover a water route to the fabled Spice Islands in Indonesia, where the most sought-after commodities (cloves, pepper, and nutmeg) flourished. Three years later, a handful of survivors returned with an abundance of spices from their intended destination, but with just one ship carrying 18 emaciated men. During their remarkable voyage around the world the crew endured starvation, disease, mutiny, and torture. Many men died, including Magellan, who was violently killed in a fierce battle.
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The Reading IS an Issue
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Tom Crean was the farmer’s son from Kerry who sailed on three major expeditions to the unknown Antarctic over a century ago. He served with both Captain Robert Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton, spent longer on the ice than either and outlived them both. But Tom Crean returned to Ireland and never spoke about his exploits, taking his incredible story to the grave - until the publication of An Unsung Hero, which unearthed his story and saw him rightfully placed amongst the annals of the great explorers.
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Excellent!
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By: Michael Smith
What listeners say about Banks
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Drone Boy
- 08-21-22
So fresh I felt the Ocean Mist!
This biography is like a film in book form. I listened to it in three sittings, and felt very satisfied by the close. It will give you an fantastic overview of Banks's voyages, specifically with Cook, his botany, indigenous encounters, and his later involvement with the agronomic colonization of Australia. Grantlee's perspective sticks to the primary source material and let it speak. Ideology and narrative extrapolation are kept to a minimum. Maybe i felt like there was more going on with Solander and Banks, however, but this is the best Banks biography on Audible. The other two are good, but this book is less of a boring history lesson told to you by Mrs Lugubrious and more of a wonderful adventure!!! What a Man, what a life!
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