The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins: Australia's greatest explorer

The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins: Australia's greatest explorer

by Peter FitzSimons
The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins: Australia's greatest explorer

The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins: Australia's greatest explorer

by Peter FitzSimons

Hardcover

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$38.99 
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Overview

The extraordinary, must-read story of the brave, bold Hubert Wilkins - Australia's most adventurous explorer, naturalist, photographer, war hero, aviator, spy and daredevil - brought to life by Australia's greatest storyteller.

Sir Hubert Wilkins is one of the most remarkable Australians who ever lived.

The son of pioneer pastoralists in South Australia, Hubert studied engineering before moving on to photography, then sailing for England and a job producing films with the Gaumont Film Co. Brave and bold, he became a polar expeditioner, a brilliant war photographer, a spy in the Soviet Union, a pioneering aviator-navigator, a death-defying submariner - all while being an explorer and chronicler of the planet and its life forms that would do Vasco da Gama and Sir David Attenborough proud. As a WW1 photographer he was twice awarded the Military Cross for bravery under fire, the only Australian photographer in any war to be decorated. He went on expedition with Sir Ernest Shackleton, led a groundbreaking natural history study in Australia and was knighted in 1928 for his aviation exploits, but many more astounding achievements would follow. Wilkins' quest for knowledge and polar explorations were lifelong passions and his missions to polar regions aboard the submarine Nautilus the stuff of legend.

With masterful storytelling skill, Peter FitzSimons illuminates the life of Hubert Wilkins and his incredible achievements. Thrills and spills, derring-do, new worlds discovered - this is the most unforgettable tale of the most extraordinary life lived by any Australian.,
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Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780733641367
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Publication date: 12/06/2022
Pages: 544
Product dimensions: 6.50(w) x 9.50(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

Peter FitzSimons AM is Australia's bestselling non-fiction writer, and for the past 35 years has also been a journalist and columnist with the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD and the SUN-HERALD.

He is the author of a number of highly successful books, including BREAKER MORANT, BURKE AND WILLS, MONASH'S MASTERPIECE, KOKODA, NED KELLY and GALLIPOLI, as well as biographies of such notable Australians as Sir Douglas Mawson, Nancy Wake and Nick Farr-Jones. His passion is to tell Australian stories, our own stories: of great men and women, of stirring events in our history.

Peter grew up on a farm north of Sydney, went to boarding school in Sydney and attended Sydney University. An ex-Wallaby, he also lived for several years in rural France and Italy, playing rugby for regional clubs. He and his wife Lisa Wilkinson AM - journalist, magazine editor and television presenter - have three children; they live in Sydney.

Table of Contents

List of Maps ix

Dramatis Personae xi

Introduction xv

Prologue xxi

1 The bare beginnings 1

2 Air and arms 33

3 Polar exploration 72

4 North - and beyond 104

5 A whale of a time 128

6 Rumble of war 150

7 Moi, Aussie 175

8 Aux armes, Australiens, formez vos bataillons! 202

9 Flight to adventure 234

10 From the Kremlin to Kakadu 274

11 To the Far North 299

12 Arctic by air 325

13 Soaring 351

14 Across the roof of the world 392

15 O'er the ocean, and under the sea 421

16 'Hello, goodbye' 452

Epilogue 485

Endnotes 503

Bibliography 533

Index 539

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