My daughter Roxanne gave me a book for Christmas called, 'This Thing of Darkness', by Harry Thompson. I looked at the cover and it looked rather ominous to me, with a dark greens and gloom and rocks and a lonely ship with a smaller canoes around. I thought to myself, oh my, a horror or thriller, just what I am not in the mood for.
Not bothering to read the blurb I put it aside and forgot about it, for a short while. Not having gotten many books and having read through all the ones I have, I was desperate for something to read, so I picked this book up and turned to read the blurb.
‘1828’ – ooh – I love history – reading on … ‘Brilliant young naval officer Robert FitzRoy is given the captaincy of HMS Beagle, surveying the wilds of Tierra del Fuego, aged just twenty-three.’ - ok… wonder where that is…. ‘ He takes a passenger: a young trainee cleric and amateur geologist named Charles Darwin’ – OH – ‘This is the story of a deep friendship between two men, and the twin obsessions that tore it apart, leading one to triumph and the other to disaster …’ Now I was definitely interested ….
I started to read …….. and read I did and I could not put the book down. In bed at night for hours on end, walking along the corridors at work, walking to and from the bus stop, the book never left my hands. Crying and laughing, feeling the warmth of friendship and the heartbreak of taking different paths in life, I read and read until I came to the end, all to soon I might add, of an 852 page masterpiece.
Not only had I learnt of places that exist down at the bottom end of our earthly home, but also of cultures and people that are not well know. Fauna, Flora and the bravery of young men going off into the unknown left me with a feeling that I was on those voyages, accompanying FitzRoy and Darwin through one of the most amazing times of their lives.
Anyone who is interested in History, Darwin, Travel – this is a MUST read.
