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Portrait of the Gulf Stream: In Praise of Currents (Armchair Traveler)

Portrait of the Gulf Stream: In Praise of Currents (Armchair Traveler)

by Erik Orsenna (Author), Harry Hall (Editor)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2008

    $8.96
Synopsis

'It so happens that ever since childhood I have been in love with ocean currents, in love with those rivers hidden in the water'. As a child in Brehat, an island off the coast of Brittany, Erik Orsenna was told to give thanks for the Gulf Stream, the Atlantic Ocean current that brings warmth to the waters of Europe and gives us our relatively benign climate. It is his passion and concern for the Gulf Stream that is the motivation behind this book, in which he asks 'Wat is the Gulf Stream?', 'Where does it begin and end?', and 'Will global warming stop its flow?'.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 320
 Edition: First Edition
 Publisher: Haus Publishing Limited
Published: 12 Jan 2008
ISBN 10: 190579133X
ISBN 13: 9781905791330

Media Reviews
'The French author Erik Orsenna 'collects currents' in the way that other people collect butterflies or stamps. He has been in love with them since his childhood in Brehat, an island off the Brittany coast. His book is a personal and somewhat idiosyncratic investigation into the science and myths of currents, in particular the one that gives the United Kingdom and northern Europe a far warmer climate than usual for this latitude - the Gulf Stream. As well as talking to scientists and discussing past attempts to explain these hidden oceanic pathways, he travels to Norway, searching in vain for the mythical whirlpool the Maelstroem. At one point, Orsenna admits 'I am not a scientist, I am a wanderer', and it is clear that the true subject of this book, and the source of his fascination, goes well beyond the merely nautical. At the end he mentions feng shui and Australia's songlines as examples of land-based currents, but one senses that he could have said much more about the way currents resonate throughout literature and our wider culture.' -- PD Smith The Guardian 20100925
Author Bio
Erik Orsenna is a well established author and important French cultural fugure. He has published several novels. La vie comme a Lausanne won the Prix Roger Nimier and for L'Exposition coloniale he was awarded the Prix Goncourt. He was President Francois Mitterend's cultural advisor and has been a member of the Academie