Selkirk's Island
Diana Souhami
Open Road Media
<p><B>Winner of the 2001 Whitbread Biography Award:</B><B>Diana Souhami's gripping true story of the man and the island that inspired <I>Robinson Crusoe </I></B><BR /> This action-filled biography follows Alexander Selkirk, an eighteenth-century Scottish buccaneer who sailed the South Seas plundering for gold. But an ill-fated expedition in 1703 led to shipwreck on remote Juan Fern&aacute;ndez Island off the coast of Chile. Selkirk, the ship's master, was accused of inciting mutiny and abandoned on the uninhabited island with nothing but his clothing, his pistol, a knife, and a Bible. Each day he searched the sea for a ship that would rescue him and prayed for help that seemed never to come.<BR /> <BR /> In solitude and silence Selkirk gradually learned to adapt. He killed seals and goats for food and used their skin for clothing. He learned how to build a house, forage for food, create stores, plant seeds, light a fire, and tame cats. Then one day, a ship with wooden sails...</p></BR>