by Neil Oliver
Scott was an English gentleman and addressed his widow accordingly.
I want you to take the whole thing very sensibly, as I am sure you will. The boy will be your comfort. I had looked forward to helping you to bring him up, but it is a satisfaction to know that he will be safe with you. You know I cherish no sentimental rubbish about remarriage. When the right man comes to help you in life you ought to be your happy self again—I wasn’t a very good husband, but I hope I shall be a good memory. Certainly the end is nothing for you to be ashamed of, and I like to think the boy will have a good start in his parentage of which he may be proud.
Was Scott a student of Spartan history? Had he learned from those long-lost heroes how manly men conduct themselves when all is lost? Did he learn from Leonidas that it was right to hope his wife and son would be happy again, after he was gone?
Kathleen continued her work as a sculptor and her first effort after Scott’s death was to create the bronze of him, wearing his Antarctic garb, that stands now in Waterloo Place, in London. As Scott had wished, she married for a second time, becoming the wife of Edward Hilton Young MP. The couple had one son, Wayland, also an MP. Kathleen died in 1947.
Scott had found the strength of character to reveal in simple words how he planned to face the end. His journal and his memory came back to a world close to a war that would change everything and everyone. Scott had shown how men might meet their deaths with dignity and without complaint. A generation would shortly try to measure themselves against the standard set by Captain Scott of the Antarctic. In many ways the men and boys of Flanders would fight in the shadow he had cast. Their name liveth for evermore.
Spare of visible emotion though the letter to Kathleen is, somehow it aches with the longing of a breaking heart.
You must know that quite the worst aspect of this situation is the thought that I shall not see you again. The inevitable must be faced…I think the last chance has gone. We have decided not to kill ourselves but to fight to the last…but in fighting there is a painless end, so don’t worry.
He knew it was the memory that mattered, and the story—an amazing story for his son, and every son:
Make the boy interested in Natural History if you can. It is better than games. They encourage it in some schools. I know you will keep him in the open air. Try and make him believe in a God, it is comforting.
What lots and lots I could tell you of this journey. How much better it has been than lounging about in too great comfort at home. What tales you would have had for the boy…
Further Reading
Captain Scott
Robert F. Scott, Journals: Captain Scott’s Last Expedition, ed. Max Jones, Oxford University Press, 2006.
Reginald Pound, Scott of the Antarctic, World Books, 1968.
Robert F. Scott, The Voyage of the Discovery, Smith Elder and Co., 1905.
Michael Smith, I Am Just Going Outside: Captain Oates, Antarctic Tragedy, Spellmount Publishers, 2006.
Susan Solomon, The Coldest March: Scott’s Fatal Antarctic Expedition, Yale University Press, 2003.
The Penlee Lifeboatmen
rnli.org.uk
John Paul Jones and the Birth of the US Navy
Joseph F. Callo, John Paul Jones: America’s First Sea Warrior, US Naval Institute Press, 2006.
Evan Thomas, John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy, Simon & Schuster, 2004.
Ian W. Toll, Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy, W. W. Norton, 2008.
The Demons of Camerone
Douglas Boyd, The French Foreign Legion, Sutton Publishing, 2006.
Douglas Porch, The French Foreign Legion: Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force, HarperCollins, 1991.
James W. Ryan, Camerone. The French Foreign Legion’s Greatest Battle, Praeger Publishers, 1996.
The Battle of Isandlwana
Saul David, Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879, Viking, 2004.
Ian Knight, Isandlwana 1879: The Great Zulu Victory, Osprey, 2002.
Ian Knight, The Zulus, Osprey, 1989.
Ian Knight, Zulu War 1879: Twilight of a Warrior Nation, Osprey, 1992.
John Laband, Lord Chelmsford’s Zululand Campaign, 1878-1879, Stroud, 1994.
D-Day and the Beach Called Omaha
Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944, Pocket Books, 2002.
Joseph Balkoski, Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944, Stackpole Books, 2006.
John C. McManus, The Americans at D-Day: The American Experience at the Normandy Invasion, Forge Books, 2005.
The Yangtze Incident
Lawrence Earl, George C. Yangtse Incident: the Story of H. M. S. Amethyst, April 20, 1949, to July 31, 1949, Harrap and Company, 1950.
L. Frank, Yangtse River Incident 1949: The Diary of Coxswain Leslie Frank, Naval and Military Press, 2004.
Josiah Harlan, the Man Who Would be King
Ben Macintyre, The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
Sir Ernest Shackleton and the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
Harding McGregor Dunnet, Shackleton’s Boat: The Story of the James Caird, Neville and Harding Publishers Ltd, 1996.
Leonard Duncan Albert Hussey, South with Shackleton, Low, 1949.
Sir Ernest Shackleton, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage, Heinemann, 1919.
Michael Smith, An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean–Antarctic Survivor, Collins Press, 2001.
Frank Worsley, Endurance: An Epic of Polar Adventure, W. W. Norton and Company, 2000.
The Flight of the Nez Perces
Dee Brown, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, Vintage, 1991.
Mark H. Brown, The Flight of the Nez Perce, University of Nebraska Press, 1982.
E. Jane Gay, With the Nez Perce: Alice Fletcher in the Field, 1889-92, University of Nebraska Press, 1981.
Kent Nerburn, Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy, HarperOne, 2005.
The Birkenhead Drill
A. C. Addison and W. H. Matthews, Deathless Story: The Birkenhead and Its Heroes, Naval and Military Press, 2001.
Norman Clothier, Black Valour—The South African Native Labour Contingent, 1916–1918 and the Sinking of the Mendi, University of Natal Press, 1987.
Douglas W. Phillips, The Birkenhead Drill, The Vision Forum, 2004
The Thin Red Line and the Charge of the Light Brigade
Saul David, Victoria’s Wars, Penguin, 2006.
Richard Holmes, Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket, HarperCollins, 2002.
Hugh Small, The Crimean War: Queen Victoria’s Wars with the Russian Tsars, Tempus, 2007.
John Sweetman, Balaclava 1854 : The Charge of the Light Brigade, Osprey, 1990.
The Battle of Trafalgar
Max Adams, Trafalgar’s Lost Hero: Admiral Lord Collingwood and the Defeat of Napoleon, Wiley, 2005.
Tim Clayton and Phil Craig, Trafalgar: The Men, the Battle, the Storm, Hodder, 2005.
Gregory Fremont-Barnes, Trafalgar 1805: Nelson’s Crowning Victory, Osprey, 2005.
Peter Padfield, Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom, John Murray, 2003.
John Sugden, Nelson: A Dream of Glory, Jonathan Cape, 2004.
John Terraine, Trafalgar, Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1998.
Moonwalkers and Apollo 13
Mark Beyer, Crisis in Space: Apollo 13, Children’s Press, 2002.
Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, Apollo 13, Mariner Books, 2006.
Andrew Smith, Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth, Bloomsbury, 2006.
Constantinople
Roger Crowley, Constantinople: The Last Great Siege 1453, Faber and Faber, 2005.
Donald M. Nicol, The Immortal Emperor: The Life and Legend of Constantine Palaiologos, Last Emperor of the Romans, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium,
Cambridge University Press, 1993.
David Nicolle, Constantinople 1453: The End of Byzantium, Osprey, 2000.
Dien Bien Phu
Howard R. Simpson, Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle that America Forgot, Potomac Books, 2004.
David Stone, Dien Bien Phu 1954, Anova Books, 2004.
Martin Windrow, The French Indo-China War 1946–54, Osprey, 1998.
The Siege of the Alamo
William C. Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis, Harper Perennial, 1999.
Mark Lemon, The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey, State House Press, 2008.
Frank T. Thompson, The Alamo, University of North Texas Press, 2005.
Thermopylae
Ernle Bradford, Thermopylae: The Battle for the West, Da Capo Press, 2004.
Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: An Epic History, Channel 4 Books, 2002.
Paul Cartledge, Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World, Macmillan, 2006.
Nic Fields, Thermopylae 480 BC: Leonidas’ Last Stand, Osprey, 2007.
Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire (novel), Bantam Books, 2000.
Illustration Acknowledgments
John Paul Jones, Josiah Harlon, Omaha Beach, and The Alamo © Alexis Seabrook.
Captain Scott by L. Du Garde Peach, 1963. Illustrations by John T. Kenney. Reproduced by kind permission of Ladybird Books Ltd
The Story of Ships by Richard Bowood, 1961. Illustrations by Robert Ayton. Reproduced by kind permission of Ladybird Books Ltd
Wreck of the Birkenhead © reproduced with permission from The Thomas Ross Collection
The Story of Napoleon by L. Du Garde Peach, 1968. Illustrations by John T. Kenney. Reproduced by kind permission of Ladybird Books Ltd
The Story of Nelson by L. Du Garde Peach, 1957. Illustrations by John T. Kenney. Reproduced by kind permission of Ladybird Books Ltd
The Story of Flight by Richard Bowood, 1960. Illustrations by Robert Ayton. Reproduced by kind permission of Ladybird Books Ltd
All other images © Look and Learn. Reproduced by kind permission of Ladybird Books Ltd
Acknowledgments
The easy part of a book like this one is the writing. Long before I started typing, I had a pin-sharp idea in my head of how the stories would sound. There’s a very specific tone that always works for me in an adventure story when I hear it—and all I had to do with Amazing Tales was listen to the voices in my head. For most of the time, I just took dictation.
Like I said, that was the easy part, and it was my part. The hard jobs were everyone else’s problem, and to all of those individuals I owe a huge debt of thanks. My editor at Michael Joseph, the original publisher of Amazing Tales, is Rowland White and if it hadn’t been for him, this wouldn’t have seen the light of day. From our first words at our first meeting, I knew that Rowland could hear the same voices in his head. In fact, with the benefit of hindsight it’s clear to me now that before I started speaking to him that day, he already knew these stories, and how they should sound. Throughout the process, we have talked together like overgrown schoolboys, and it has been his boundless enthusiasm for, and commitment to, the project that made the whole enterprise huge fun from start to finish.
My literary agent at William Morris, lovely Eugenie Furniss, had the wisdom to put Rowland and me together in the first place—and so to her too goes another huge helping of my thanks. She listened to, understood and reassured me all the way, and the sheer force of her no-nonsense commonsense bowled me along helplessly. Massive gratitude, as usual, goes to my agent, dearest Sophie Laurimore, also at William Morris, who has looked after me for longer than anyone else and who has followed the progress of this project with the kind of enthusiasm I might have expected from a fellow chap.
Both Sophie and Eugenie are, most important as far as I’m concerned, the mothers of sons. Two more potential readers—so obviously, well done there.
With a book like this, almost above all other considerations it had to look right. It had to have the appearance of a treasured annual returning to the sunlight after long incarceration in a trunk in the attic. And so it does. This is down to Andrew Smith, who took care of the overall design, and to Tom Sanderson, who created the jacket. Further thanks are owed to Nick Lowndes, for copy editorial; James Blackman, for production; Chantal Gibbs, for researching all the pictures; Annie Lee, for scrupulous attention to detail when editing my stream of consciousness; Jennifer Doyle, for marketing and Catherine Duncan, for publicity. I am also in debt to Naomi Fidler and Ana-Maria Rivera and the whole of the Penguin sales team.
To Trudi, Evie, Archie and Teddy, all my love.
All I can offer to all of the people above are my grateful thanks. Responsibility for any and all mistakes and omissions is down to me, and me alone.
Credits
Cover design by Robert Venables
Cover illustration by Tom Sanderson
Copyright
AMAZING TALES FOR MAKING MEN OUT OF BOYS. Copyright © 2009 by Neil Oliver. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
From “The Call of the Wild” by Robert Service, used by permission of Estate of Robert Service.
From Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, published by Orion.
Reproduced by permission of David Higham Associates.
Picture permissions can be found in Acknowledgments.
Mobipocket Reader April 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-187679-0
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