Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire | 
| Author: Simon Winchester
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 173129
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0060598611
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.9171241
EAN: 9780060598617
ASIN: 0060598611
Publication Date: June 1, 2004
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Product Description
Simon Winchester, struck by a sudden need to discover exactly what was left of the British Empire, set out across the globe to visit the far-flung islands that are all that remain of what once made Britain great. He traveled 100,000 miles back and forth, from Antarctica to the Caribbean, from the Mediterranean to the Far East, to capture a last glint of imperial glory. His adventures in these distant and forgotten ends of the earth make compelling, often funny reading and tell a story most of us had thought was over: a tale of the last outposts in Britain's imperial career and those who keep the flag flying. With a new introduction, this updated edition tells us what has happened to these extraordinary places while the author's been away.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
Outposts of Empire - Forgotten History March 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Simon Winchester made it his mission to visit the forgotten outposts of the British Empire. A century ago the Empire spanned the globe, hundreds of islands, dozens of countries and protectorates and the sun truly never set on the territories. But the Empire shrunk and collapsed in on itself yet straggling islands across the planet still lay claim or are claimed by the shadow of day's long gone.
Sure, as other people have said, it's a dated book. But it was written in 1985 and reading it with that in mind it's a fascinating travelogue. I loved the author's attempt to "invade" Diego Garcia accompanied by the disappointing story of how residents were evicted and the U.S. put in a major (nuclear) base. The empire has done so many things in its best interest, unfortunately that doesn't always include protecting individual rights.
I also learned a lot about St. Helena where exiles resided for decades (Napoleon, Mbelini - head of the Zulu Nation). I knew nothing about the beauty of the island or of the mansion where Napoleon took his walks and dictated his memoirs, staff on hand and British Guards out of sight.
The Pitcairn islands are the last refuge of Britain in the Pacific not even administered nearby, but instead thousands of miles away from Australia. The resident population shrinking and forgotten. The average British citizen doesn't know much about its current empire. Maybe if you ask they'll say the Isle of Mann or the Faulklands. But these Outposts are historic and present. It's a great read. I love learning the minutia of history: the forgotten places, the discarded histories, and the neglected peoples.
Dated? Maybe, but is history ever dated and does travel lose its romance.
- CV Rick, March 2008
A Tour of the Ruins.... February 5, 2008
Simon Winchester wrote "Outposts" in 1984, just after the Falklands War and before Hong Kong was turned back over to China. The paperback edition has a new 2003 introduction but contains the same basic text.
This book is a well-written, sometimes whimsical, often sharp-eyed travelogue of Winchester's visits to some of the remaining overseas territories of the former British Empire. The tour includes Diego Garcia, Gibralter, the Atlantic islands such as Ascension and St Helena, Bermuda, the Caribbean islands, the Falklands, Hong Kong, and the Pitcairn group in the Pacific.
Getting to the remoter locations is a significant part of the story. Winchester has to sneak into Diego Garcia by sailboat, only to be booted out by the authorities. He arrives by commercial airliner in the Falklands just days ahead of the Argentine invasion. Getting to the remoter Atlantic islands required a hop on a periodic cargo vessel and favorable weather to actually get ashore. Pitcairn was so remote as to defeat Winchester's efforts to actually visit.
For each outpost, Winchester surveys its imperial past and provides some anecdotes on its often anachronistic present as a colony or overseas dependency. Some places, such as Bermuda and the Caymans, have done well. Some less fortunate places, such as remote Pitcairn and some of the Caribbean islands, are seemingly administered out of stubborn habit. A few, such as Ascension and Diego Garcia, had been leased to the United States to carry out what were once the old Imperial responsibilities.
If poverty and indifferent administration by London is a frequent finding, so is the lingering essential Britishness of many of the inhabitants of the "outposts." Many residents enjoy their remoteness from the modern world, scratching out a living amid the particular charms of their outpost.
At the end of his travels, Winchester ponders the recent handling of the Outposts and their eventual fates. His lingering reverence for Britain's Imperial days competes with his evident distaste for London's indifference for the present. His thoughtful final recommendation is that London release those outposts who wish to go their own way, while integrating and properly caring for those who wish to stay British.
This book is a fascinating and enjoyable if dated travelogue that will be of interest to fans of obscure geography and to students of British history who wonder whatever became of the ruins of Empire.
Interesting travelogue though dated November 8, 2007
Another one of Simon Winchester's interesting travelogues. Very eloquent and entertaining. Well researched with only a few dull moments. As a result is excellent for long cross-country drives. The only negative (and hence 4 out of 5 stars) is the fact that the book is a bit dated. When Winchester took his trips to these former colonies of the crown it was back in the 1980s. As a result, obviously, much has changed.
 A great read September 20, 2007
Simon Winchester's book on the remnants of the British Empire is a fine piece of reportage from a geologist turned journalist turned writer.
Part travel book, part history, part reportage, it takes the reader on various fascinating journeys - sea, rail, air - to outposts ranging from fly specks such as Tristan Da Cunha and Pitcairn Island to teeming Hong Kong on the brink of the handover to the PRC and its new status as a special administrative region.
Like all Winchester's books it is well written, with a lovely light touch that makes the read a pleasure. Much recommended to those who enjoy the travel genre
Eccentric journeys to the far corners of the world February 2, 2007
Simon Winchester is an interesting guy. Like Scott Turow, he wanted to be a writer when he was young, but was pushed into something else instead. In Turow's case he became a lawyer; Winchester became a geologist. After working for twenty years as a geologist, he took up writing and has worked at it for the last twenty or twenty-five years. He writes on various non-fiction topics, some of them rather unusual, including the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary, the explosion of Krakatoa, and the San Francisco Earthquake. The current book is a recounting of several years during the late 70s and early 80s when the author worked as a journalist, and contrived to visit all of the inhabited remnants of the British Empire, save the smallest.
Winchester is a gifted writer, and he recreates his visits to each of these "outposts" with the British eccentricity and humor you'd expect from a good writer in this genre. He wouldn't be British if he didn't express some huffy disapproval at the way the British government depopulated the island of Diego Garcia and then leased it to the US Armed forces. At various points the places he describes come off as wonderfully British and yet colonial, that zany combination of efficiency and nonsensical tradition that pervades everything the British did when they were overseas.
I generally enjoyed this book, and would recommend it. It is a bit dated, and some of the predictions haven't come true: for instance, the author predicts that Pitcairn Island will be depopulated by the end of the century, and of course there are still people there. The author makes recommendations as to how the islands should be administered in the future as part of Great Britain, which of course are of little interest to someone who isn't British.
Given the shortcomings recounted above, this is a good book and rather fun. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it.
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