The English Dane

Download or read book The English Dane written by Sarah Bakewell and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2005 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Jorgen Jorgenson was a Dane who made Britain his adopted country. Restless for adventure and inspired by his hero Captain Cook, he came to London, and at twenty-three was among the small party who established a new colony - Tasmania. Amid many twists of fortune, he captained a ship for France against Britain, but then sailed with British traders to Iceland. This was his long-dreamed of moment of glory: staging an outrageous coup, for two months he ruled Iceland, proclaiming it free from Danish rule, its ancient rights restored. He was not yet thirty. Much lay ahead, including imprisonment in the hulks, patronage by Joseph Banks, and travels in Europe as a British spy. But Jorgenson was always dogged by his own excesses. Inevitably he spiralled downwards, until he was transported as a convict to Tasmania, the very colony he helped to found. Here he rose again. He bacame an explorer, cutting through the bush on desperate missions in icy mountains and across flooded rivers; and despite his sympathy for the people, he was caught up in the terrible Aboriginal clearances, described here." "Sarah Bakewell tells this tale using unpublished sources and letters. The odyssey she describes, crossing the world from island to island, illuminates the murky workings of British power while it also reveals her hero's charisma and painful self-division."--BOOK JACKET.