David Crane (1)Besprekingen

Loved this biography of Captain Robert Falcon Scott. I had already read The Worst Journey in the World, by one of the members of Scott's second Antarctic expedition, so I knew some of the story, but I knew almost nothing about Scott's earlier life. His story is endlessly fascinating, and I marvel at the men who traveled to the Antarctic and managed to live and work there.

Next-best thing to actually standing in front of the paintings, this is the catalog of the National Portrait Gallery's wonderful Regency collection, on tour in America in 2002. Succinct and interesting written portraits by David Crane complement the beautiful color reproductions of the art. Richard Holmes provides a fun, panoramic introduction.

Outstanding scholarship.

Another account of the famous Antarctic explorer.

**June 6, 1868. When British explorer Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole in January 1912, he discovered that he had lost the "Race for the Pole" by only one month to Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Then, to the shock of the rest of the world, Scott and his entire party perished while attempting to return home. Author David Crane uses Scott's own diaries and letters to probe the explorer's life and voyages, providing a fresh perspective on the man behind the myth. Dramatic details of polar exploration make Scott of the Antarctic a treat for readers who like tales of survival and discovery.

This examination of Byron, marks an alternative approach to biography. Crane focuses on the lifelong feud between Augusta - Byron's half-sister with whom he had a passionate affair - and Annabella, his society wife. Recreating a meeting between the two, years after Byron's death - the Romantic "High Noon" - he explores the emotional and sexual truth and the human vulnerability that lie at the heart of the Byron story. The text is not only rigorous in its scholarship, but also a drama in itself. It combines passion, revenge and recrimination in 19th-century Britain with the intensity of a Greek tragedy.