The Teatime Islands

by Ben Fogle (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $4.20

  Union Jacks and red post boxes can still be found in some of the most remote, inaccessible places on the planet - the far-flung islands still governed by Britain. Ben Fogle, pursuing a childhood dream, has travelled to meet the inhabitants of these wild places with evocative names like Tristan da Cunha, Ascension, Diego Garcia and Pitcairn. Because of his own unique experience on Castaway he's been welcomed by these isolated, patriotic communities. And along the way he's been threatened by elephant seals, chased by the Royal Navy and deported for spying.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.80

  Welcomed with open arms, derided as a pig-ignorant tourist and occasionally mocked mercilessly for his trouble, Ben Fogle visited the last flag-flying outposts of the British Empire. With caution, dignity and a spare pair of pants thrown to the wind, he set out to discover just exactly who would choose to live on islands as remote as these and - more importantly - tried to figure out exactly why. Landing himself on islands so isolated, wind-swept, barren and just damned peculiar that they might have Robinson Crusoe thinking twice, Fogle: almost becomes lunch on the appropriately named Carcass Island; gets deported from Pitcairn for being both a spy and a smuggler; uncovers the story of the tyrant who became St Helena's most unwilling and least popular guest; and, witnesses a shark attack from a respectable distance. Why he went, what he did when he got there and how exactly he got back in one piece makes for an eye-opening but affectionate look into life in these unique, peculiar places.