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James Cook: The Story behind The Man Who Mapped The World (Hardcover) $22.50 + Delivery ($0 with Prime/ $39 Spend) @ Amazon AU

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By comparison, currently selling for $25 at BIG W

The name Captain James Cook is one of the most recognisable in Australian history - an almost mythic figure who is often discussed, celebrated, reviled and debated.

But who was the real James Cook?

This Yorkshire farm boy would go on to become the foremost mariner, navigator and cartographer of his era, and to personally map a third of the globe. His great voyages of discovery were incredible feats of seamanship and navigation. Leading a crew of men into uncharted territories, Cook would face the best and worst of humanity as he took himself and his crew to the edge of the known world - and beyond.

With his masterful storytelling talent, Peter FitzSimons brings James Cook to life. Focusing on his most iconic expedition, the voyage of the Endeavour, where Cook first set foot on Australian and New Zealand soil, FitzSimons contrasts Cook against another figure who looms large in Australasian history: Joseph Banks, the aristocratic botanist. As they left England, Banks, a rich, famous playboy, was everything that Cook was not. The voyage tested Cook's character and would help define his legacy.

Now, 240 years after James Cook's death, FitzSimons reveals what kind of man James was at heart. His strengths, his weaknesses, his passions and pursuits, failures and successes.

JAMES COOK reveals the man behind the myth.

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closed Comments

  • +21

    Peter Fitzsimons… No thanks… Almost worth a neg just for that…

    • +3

      my suspicions are confirmed.

      • +1

        Lol. I thought I was the only one!

      • -1

        More reason to love him!

    • +12

      It's a Cook book, it's a Cook book!

      • +3

        lol…

  • +12

    Lol bandana man. I’d like to see him wear that ridiculous head piece in some shady part of Los Angeles

    • +4

      So much disrespect for Australia's first President. He, single handedly, wrote the declaration of dependence, while sailing on his Lord Sandwich all the way to Hawaii, only to be made into a sandwich.

      • +1

        I must have really under appreciated appreciated Peter Fitzsimons impact on Australia.

      • +7

        Yes, pirate Pete, who has a team, of researchers, to do all, the hard work, for him. And who has, a deep, abiding love, for commas.

  • +3

    $5 at your local op shop or $2 at the book sale.

  • +7

    rubbish book. buy one written by an actual historian and not a rehash rushed out for xmas

  • +5

    You have to admire the business model.
    Come out with a new book before Christmas or Fathers Day. For this market it must be big, and be about Australian history, but blokier. And it must be big, did I mention that? At least they can prop a door open
    Bandana Man, the most unread best selling author in Australia.
    PS this only came out a few weeks ago and is discounted before Christmas?

    • -2

      Don’t think PF has any say in this.

  • +6

    FitzSimons = BS

  • sailormanbad

    Does that pretty much sum it up?

    • +2

      I'm sure that's the narrative Fitzsimons had in mind. He then just had to fill in the pages.

  • has anyone read it?

    • Lots of vitriol towards the author, but no actual reviews of the book.

      Full disclosure: I’ve never read any of his books, however some of my family and friends have and the feedback is always that they are generally quite entertaining reads. YMMV.

    • +1

      these are intended to be bought as gifts. Most end up as door stops, not meant to be a history text.

    • +4

      He is known to be a bit loose with the facts, hence treat his historical books with caution.

  • +2

    Oh no!
    Accidentally upvoted prior to seeing who the author is!
    How do I revoke the upvote?

    • +1

      Go here and select “Revoke”

      • +1

        Cheers!

    • I prefer my ahistorical stories of historical events a bit funnier. Like George MacDonald Fraser.

  • +3

    Fitzsimons can't even be trusted with his own life stories, let alone a historical biography about a man that the cultural-left want to diminish.

    • what about his own life stories? intrigued

      • +5

        He recently told a self-serving yarn at some big function, about how years ago he tried to stop a drunk Mike Carlton from throwing wine and getting into a fist fight with a conservative journalist at a dinner. Fitzsimons made himself into the hero of the story. Problem was the other dozen or so diners who were at the table and the tables closeby, say it never happened the way Fitzsimons described, he fabricated parts of the story to flatter himself.

        • interesting. google says there is an andrew bolt blog (ironic) but it is behind a paywall

          https://www.heraldsun.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=HS…

          • +1

            @bargain huntress: Bolt was the one who confronted the drunk Carlton who made a bee-line for his table.

            • -1

              @rokufan: i see. bolt doesn't always seem necessarily reliable either…

              • +1

                @bargain huntress: It's not only hanging on Bolt's word. As I said above: "Problem was the other dozen or so diners who were at the table and the tables closeby, say it never happened the way Fitzsimons described". It was a media dinner, most of the diners were journalists/media personalities and their spouses. I've read and heard several different journos confirm Bolt's account. And they gave them at the time (and haven't changed their stories), which was well over a decade ago. Fitzsimons version is only a recent invention, one he has not even told before as far as I can tell.

                • +1

                  @rokufan: hmmm. the only options i can think of - in order to alter a story with that many witnesses, you'd have to either; have a very unusual way of perceiving the world, have a memory unusually susceptible to delusion, or have a lack of shame?

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