MixedTimes Literary Supplement (UK)A compelling life to narrate, and Wulf cleaves closely to archival verities, avoiding any tendency towards overembellished writing. Yet if the biographer’s task is not simply to narrate, but also to offer insights into character and personality as the motor to actions and opinions, where Forster’s cosmopolitanism, tolerance, open-mindedness, intellectual independence and sheer toughness came from remain unclear on this account ... The great achievement of The Traveller is to make Forster resonate with the present day. What remains frustratingly elusive is an understanding of how he came to be the traveller, thinker and humanitarian who is so able to do so.
Jerry Brotton
PositiveTimes Literary Supplement (UK)Brotton offers what might be framed as a history of the cultural politics of the cardinal directions. The scope of the book is breathtaking ... Faster, travels further, but inevitably sacrifices depth. Let us hope the rich seams the author has opened up are mined by others.
Peter Moore
RaveThe Literary ReviewMoore’s elegant and entertaining new book offers us a fascinating biography of the Endeavour, using it as a window onto the broader world of the mid-18th-century English Enlightenment ... Moore has researched the culture of Whitby boat building extensively and is able to make technical details sparkle for the general reader ... Unsurprisingly, Moore’s account of the vessel’s second incarnation is the part of the book that adds least to our knowledge because this subject has been so extensively researched already ... a beautifully crafted book, but it does at times overreach itself ... a deeply satisfying book. It represents an intelligent, diverse, fresh and challenging approach to writing the history of exploration. Paying homage to the remarkable lives of a single vessel, Peter Moore also gives the Endeavour a new lease of life long after its sinking.
