Angry Island

Tristan da Cunha is both a remote group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately 1,511 miles (2,432 km) off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, 1,343 miles (2,161 km) from Saint Helena and 2,166 miles (3,486 km) off the coast from the Falkland Islands. The territory consists of the main island, Tristan da Cunha, which has a diameter of roughly 11 km (6.8 mi) and an area of 98 sq km (38 sq mi), the smaller, uninhabited Nightingale Islands, and the wildlife reserves of Inaccessible Island and Gough Island. As of October 2018, the main island has 250 permanent inhabitants who all carry British Overseas Territories citizenship. The other islands are uninhabited, except for the personnel of a weather station on Gough Island. Tristan da Cunha is part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha. This includes Saint Helena and also near-equatorial Ascension Island, which lies some 1,741 miles (2,802 km) to the north of Tristan. There is no airstrip of any kind on the main island, meaning that the only way of travelling in and out of Tristan is by boat, a six-day trip from South Africa. Angry Island: The Story of Tristan da Cunha (1506-1963) by Margaret Mackay was first published in 1963, the year the Tristanians returned to their island after its volcano erupted in 1961 and forced the evacuation of the entire population to England. As the most isolated inhabited island on Earth, the Tristanians have had to adapt and develop innovative ways in order to survive, and in this book, Mrs. Mackay tells a very detailed history of Tristan da Cunha since its discovery over five hundred years ago, sharing many shipwreck tales and early yet failed attempts to settle the island. A gripping read!

Foreigner Adrian Gill (a Scot) goes in search of the essence of England and the English The English are naturally, congenitally, collectively and singularly, livid much of the time. In between the incoherent bellowing of the terraces and the pursed, rigid eye-rolling of the commuter carriage, they reach the end of their tethers and the thin end of their wedges. They're incensed, incandescent, splenetic, prickly, touchy and fractious. They sit apart on their half of a damply disappointing little island, nursing and picking at their irritations. Perhaps aware that they're living on top of a keg of fulminating fury, the English have, throughout their history, come up with hundreds of ingenious and bizarre ways to diffuse anger or transform it into something benign. Good manners and queues, roundabouts and garden sheds, and almost every game ever invented from tennis to bridge. They've built things, discovered stuff, made puddings, written hymns and novels, and for people who don't like to talk much, they have come up with the most minutely nuanced and replete language ever spoken - just so there'll be no misunderstandings. In this hugely witty, personal and readable book, A.A. Gill looks anger and the English straight in the eye.

Memory hangs over this moving collection of poems like a veil of wistful longing. All may be ephemeral – love, nature, life itself – but memory lives on. In the title poem, “No Angry Islands,” Jay Cohen captures the lost moment of two lovers, separated by time and space. Their bond is now frozen in the elements of nature: “Only the wind to weep of former days./Only the dawn to take us back again.” Cohen’s unique perspective as both a poet and a scientist overlays his reflections on the physical world and the human soul. He explores the lasting impact of celebrated men such as Robert Frost, Louis Pasteur, and Itzak Perlman. But what of the ordinary man? He, too, has a chance for immortality, through his words and deeds. Cohen’s deep, lyrical voice echoes through this book as he, indeed, lives on through his poems, honoring the mundane and the mighty, marveling at the idiosyncrasies of nature and man. Ten years after his death, his insights remain as relevant and palpable as ever.

From Hugh Edwards, one of the discoverers of the wreck of the Batavia, comes Islands of Angry Ghosts, an expert and compelling look at one of the most horrific maritime incidents in Australian history. A fascinating story, in print since 1966, Islands of Angry Ghosts is a story in two parts. It traces and re-creates the final months of the Batavia and her crew, pieced together through journals, letters and trial records. It also follows the discovery and salvage of Batavia's wreck by Hugh Edwards and a crew of divers. In 1629, the Dutch East India merchantman the Batavia was wrecked on reef islands off the West Australian coast while on a routine trip to Indonesia. What followed this disaster is a harrowing tale of desertion, betrayal and murder. More than 125 men, women and children were murdered by mutineers caught in a frenzy of bloodlust and greed. By the time the rescue ship finally arrived, months later, the marooned were caught in a desperate battle between soldiers trying to defend the survivors and the mutineers who were bent on leaving no witnesses. More than three hundred years later, Hugh Edwards, a West Australian reporter and diving enthusiast, started to search for the lost ship. When Edwards and his team found the Batavia, they discovered the final piece of a story that has gripped Australians for over a century.

An action-packed survival suspense from bestselling and award-winning author Gordon Korman. Six kids. One shipwreck. One desert island.They didn't want to be on the boat in the first place. They were sent there as punishment, or as a character-building experience. Now the adults are gone, and the quest for survival has begun.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.