The Story of the Unsinkable Titanic

by Michael Wilkinson

The complete story day by day of the fateful voyage with facsimile newspaper headlines and columns reporting the history of the construction, launch and aftermath as events unfolded. Prolifically illustrated with rare contemporary photographs.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone knows the story of course, so it is a little difficult for these types of books to add anything. This book however was successful at doing that. Well set out with plenty of fascinating newspaper clips which really added to it as well. Very enjoyable read.

[Consuelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent historical research! I appreciate that actual articles from the 1912 newspapers,the documented minutes from the inquiries, and excellent photography selections were included in this narrative. This approach lends an insight to the people of that era, making it a little more personal rather than a vague idea of statistical numbers. The format and layout of the book made it an inviting and interesting read!

[Tini Lorna Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always been fascinated by the tragic history of Titanic. And this book gives me a glimpse of what really happen that night, through the eyes of eyewitnesses. It's incredible, overwhelming and heart-wrenching at the same time. One of my favorite books so far. I even read it twice!

[Cathlina Bergman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written. Several typos. Not clear what passages are lifted from actual accounts and which are "facsimile reports," and there's little logic to how articles or topics are arranged. Plus the "reports" seem to lean towards the sensational and include several claims that have been disproven.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad entry into the plethora of Titanic books on the market. Contains plenty of photographs of the ship and such.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you find these kind of books, which are brand new out, for a really good price, you're always happy. Unfortunately, after reading this book, it simply did not live up to expectations. It's actually one of the first Titanic books I've read in a while, which can only be described as dry and boring. What a disappointment.

This book is described as "using contemporaneous accounts and facsimile reports from the archives of Associated Newspapers". That may be true, and I know newspapers in 1912 weren't exactly full of celebrity gossip (or is that just the newspapers I read?), but I literally started skimming from about halfway through. Maybe because I am interested in the survivors but the newspaper accounts that are included here, hardly touched upon them. And even then it seemed to be actual copies of the newspaper accounts - which were shockingly hard to read at the best of times.

I read in another review that this book is "densely illustrated" - yes, it is. But to the point where newspaper reports are splashed haphazardly across a double page spread of an underwater picture of the Titanic? That's not densely illustrated, that's ruining the damn picture. This occurred so many times that it really began to irritate me.

Also, I know the book features newspaper report after newspaper report, but more than one was included that repeated a previous one. Surely someone should have stuck their hand up at this point and questioned what was the point in having two reports pretty much saying the exact same thing? It's very boring and annoying for the reader.

There seemed to be no coherent layout to this book either. It seemed to be grouped into days, relating to which days the newspaper accounts came from. (I think.) But even then, again going back to my previous point, they repeated themselves to the point I was sorely tempted to throw the book somewhere hard and break something valuable.

My other quibble with this book was with the proof reading. Whoever did it (if anyone!) should have been shot, as they did a really pathetic job. I can forgive the occasional mistake in a book, even if it does get me really riled up. But when you find a mistake in the BLURB, what does that say about the proof reader? Couldn't be bothered? A rushed release? Or illiterate? In the blurb (inside front cover) the Titanic is described as a "oating palace". Uh huh. There are a few others like new paragraphs not being indented, but the ones that really got to me (by this point, I was hastily skimming and steam was probably whistling out my ears) was Titanic's sister ship being called "Olympia" and the passengers being put off in "lifebotas". Glaringly obvious errors that the simplest person could have spotted, I think.

This isn't a book I shall be re-reading or recommending.

[Chris Cousins]

A very detailed book on the sinking of the Titanic. Much of the content is the reproduction of contemporary newspapers, some small print applicable to the times but quite readable. The book covers a timeline from the building of the ship, its sinking and the enquiries into the disaster. It ends with the discovery of the wreck in 1985. I would have liked to have more photos and text about the ship's discovery however this does not detract from the book being a good read.

[Helen Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't tell you anything that many books prior to this publishing didn't already state, that said, the pictures are great