To the Edge of the World: Book II

by Harry Thompson

Volume II in the trilogy. To the Edge of the World is a seafaring adventure in the tradition of Patrick O Brian, chartering the lives of Captain Robert FitzRoy and Charles Darwin, their friendship, and the historical voyage that ultimately drove them apart. In 1831, FitzRoy, a Christian Tory, and the liberal naturalist Darwin board the HMS Beagle and set sail for Tierra del Fuego. As they travel around the world, exploring the coasts of Patagonia and surveying the Galápagos Islands, the two men forge a lifelong bond while debating morality, nationality, biology, fate, and religion. But Darwin s theories on evolution, which go against everything FitzRoy believes in, threaten their friendship.

Genres: Fiction

327 pages, Paperback

First published May 24, 2007

About the author

Harry William Thompson was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer. Early in his career Thompson produced the radio comedy programmes The News Quiz and The Mary Whitehouse Experience. Following his move into television, he produced Newman and Baddiel in Pieces, Harry Enfield and Chums and Monkey Dust, and co-produced Never Mind The Buzzcocks. In 1998 he was part of BBC Radio 4's 5-part political satire programme Cartoons, Lampoons, and Buffoons. During these productions he was able to gain exposure for a very large proportion of those who went on to become prominent figures in contemporary British comedy, including: Sacha Baron Cohen, Angus Deayton, Harry Enfield, Ricky Gervais, Nick Hancock, Ian Hislop, Mark Lamarr, Paul Merton and Paul Whitehouse. He was instrumental in the creation of the comic character Ali G for The 11 O'Clock Show, and as a comedy writer his credits included Da Ali G Show.

Thompson wrote biographies of Peter Cook, Richard Ingrams and Tintin creator Hergé. In June 2005, Thompson's only novel, entitled This Thing Of Darkness (a historical novel chronicling the life of Robert Fitzroy - later published in the United States as To The Edge Of The World), was published and long-listed for the Booker prize. He also wrote Penguins Stopped Play, an account of the attempt by his beloved cricket team, The Captain Scott Invitation XI, to tour all seven continents of the world.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The discussions between Darwin and Fitzroy are fascinating.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fabulous book in this trilogy. Fitzroy is much more complicated person than heretofore portrayed in the many other stories of him I have read. Very brave and daring but equally calculating. These crews were all a special breed of men. Fitzroy challenged the naval status quo but held tightly to his Biblical views of the earth and it geological and biological history. But he did weigh Darwin's ideas equally. These books are so much more about Fitzroy and the lands and people of his time; Darwin almost becomes a secondary, somewhat immature boy whose observations and loosely formed ideas carry the tale of Fitzroy and the Beagle along like a stiff breeze.

[Pablo Paz · Rating 5 out of 5]

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