The Original Robinson Crusoe

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It was in the year 1719 that the author, Daniel Defoe, published the book that we know as Robinson Crusoe, Defoe's actual long winded title was, "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely delivered by Pirates".

Robinson Crusoe is a fictional story telling of the trials and tribulations of a shipwrecked sailor, who sailed from Queens Dock in Hull in August 1651, was shipwrecked, yet returned to the sea again and was then captured by Moors. After spending two years as a Moorish slave he escaped and was rescued by the captain of a Portuguese ship and taken with him to Brazil. Where with a great deal of help from the Captain, he settled and became the owner of a successful plantation.

However after a few years when he decided to go on a slaving trip to Africa he was shipwrecked again, this time on an Island forty mile off the coast of South America, somewhere near the mouth of the Orinoco River. Crusoe along with a dog and two cats were the only survivors, After salvaging tools and materials from the wreck before it finally sank he built himself a hut with a fence around it and settled down to life on the Island. He hunted for food, planted crops from seeds he had got from the ship, raised goats, read the bible and became religious.

Later he rescued a native from being eaten by cannibals and called him Friday after the day of the week. After rescuing Friday's father and a Spaniard, whose crew was shipwrecked on the mainland, from another group of cannibals, Crusoe sent them off in a canoe to bring back the rest of the Spaniards. However, shortly after this an English ship that has been taken by mutineers arrived, with the intention of marooning the captain and the loyal crew. Crusoe and Friday help the captain and his men take back the ship and after leaving the ringleaders on the Island they sailed back to England.

The book was an immediate success, having to be republished within two week of publication and by the end of the year another three editions had to be printed. What is more, by the end of the 19th century there were more than seven hundred different versions printed, many in different languages. To this day Robinson Crusoe is still read by thousands around the world.

Many of those who first read the book thought it to be a true story, and in a way it was, because Defoe used as the inspiration for his tale, the real life account of the Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk from Fife. Selkirk, who was the ship master of the Cinique Ports, was marooned after an argument with the captain over the poor condition of the ship's hull. (In fact the Cinque Port sank only a month later). The marooning took place on Mas a Tierra, an uninhabited Island in the Juan Fernandez Group, in the Pacific Ocean, four hundred mile off the coast of Chile. During his stay on the Island Selkirk built himself a pair of huts, hunted for food, gathered crops, tamed wild goats and cats, read his bible and returned to religion. After having survived for four years and four months, he was rescued by the Woodes Rogers expedition and sailed back with them to England.

Fred Watson published his first book, a fantasy adventure novel aimed at the 8-12 age groups in November 2006. A grandfather of four, he loves to write for all age groups, has an abiding interest in history and continues on a regular basis to add new stories etc to his website. Footprint Publishing

Book Review: Forbidden Places

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In 1995, Penny Vincenzi, published her 507 page novel but every word is as fresh today as when it was written. The fact, that the story is set in wartime England and the author skillfully sets the scene by providing accurate historical context.

The main characters are three women who are each caught in a number of relationships between the years of 1938 and 1995. Some of them are very pleasant and others are difficult. Each of them is married but the demands of war place strains on them. The fact that the men are away for long periods of time, the economy has left them without many of the things that they were used to having, and everyone lives in fear because of the fighting, all lead to situations where the woman must make choices that they would otherwise never be faced with.

Each of them must consider ways to survive when there is so little to live on. Careers, that might have been out of the question in peaceful times are adopted. Forgiving others and learning to work together becomes a common theme.

Grace Bennett begins her marriage with thankfulness and hope. Trying to live with her husband and his strong opinions, however, is hard for her. When he goes off to war and continues to tell her how to live from a distance and she is left to deal with his difficult relatives, she often feels trapped and regretful.

Florence, the sister-in-law, often comes across as a snob who looks down on Grace. Behind the facade, however, are secrets that she doesn't really want to share with anyone - until she is forced to do so!

Clarissa, the beautiful and charming, ex-girlfriend of Grace's husband, seems to be so unlike Grace and it is hard to understand how one man could choose such different women to share his life with.

Throughout the pages of "Forbidden Places" we experience the full range of emotions from the characters. At times they experience joy and love while at other times they suffer from depression and fear. Their interaction with each other includes periods of jealousy, lack of trust, and even hate mixed with times of understanding, respect and mutual support.

I liked the story but have to admit that at times I was frustrated by the fact that there were almost too many twists and turns in the plot. Grace, for example, seemed to always be going through a "loves me, loves me not" situation and couldn't seem to make up her mind about how or with whom she wanted to live.

Overall, however, I looked forward to the times when I could immerse myself into the storyline and actually found myself cheering or talking out loud to the characters about what they should do. With Grace it was usually "For heaven sake, make up your mind and go with it!"

If you've never read Penny Vincenzi, you will likely be surprised by the depth of the characters and the amount of detail she puts into creating a rich setting for them. If you have read her, you will already know that this book will offer you an interesting place in which to invest some of your reading hours.

And now I would like to invite you to claim your Free Instant Access to a complimentary list of 10 Steps to Making Your Life an Adventure when you visit http://lindahancock.com/

From Dr. Linda Hancock, Registered Psychologist and Registered Social Worker

Spain's Uncivil War-Winter In Madrid by C J Sansom

(C) to (J) Sansom's Winter In Madrid goes a long way beyond the habitual territory of the historical novel. Not only does it present fiction alongside documented history, it also reproduction some real people, and not only figureheads such as Generalissimo Franco. On the contrary, the people concerned become real characters in Winter In Madrid. But this book also has its own position to present in relation to the events of the Spanish Civil War and its immediate aftermath, whose horrors form not a residence but an integral part of the novel's plot.

Three boys, Harry, Bernie and Sandy-do time together at an English public school. They are very different characters from different backgrounds equally. Harry is an orphan raised by an aunt and uncle rather distantly. Bernie is the son of a working class London shopkeeper family. He attends the private school by virtue of a scholarship. They has socialist leanings. Sandy is the rebellious son of a bishop. From the start he has the air of a bounder and a cad.

When, later, all three become involved in the Spanish Civil War, they predictably side with different actors in the conflict. Bernie, as you might expect, becomes a communist and joins the International Brigade. Harry, having studied languages and already visited articles in the pre-war Spain, is eventually lured into an apparently establishment position as a translator in the British embassy in Madrid. But alongside his linguistic services, he has another, less communicated job to pursue. Sandy, on the other hand, presents a more complex picture. No, they did not merely join the nationalists and thus oppose the other two: he was always far too driven by individualism to follow such a predictable course of action. Sandy goes into business in Spain, cultivating links with the fascist Falange. At the same time, and with obvious paradox, they also assists Jews fleeing Nazism to find passage from France to Portugal and thus further afield to safety. It may be that his brand of disinterested individualism renders his merely pragmatic business activity. On the other hand ...

And then there are two women, Barbara and Sofia. Barbara is British, a former employee of the Red Cross. Briefly she met Bernie during the war, and then he returned to the front to disappear, presumed dead. After years of change, Barbara met Sandy and, in his own way, did much to boost her damaged confidence. They are also living as man and wife, but-in a country where holding hands in public is outlawed, they are not married. Along with his assistance for fleeing Jews, this second layer of risk provides a flaw in the construction of Sandy's character. Surely he was a sufficiently mercenary operator to have seen these potential pitfalls and taken steps to avoid them? But then it's fiction.

Harry and Barbara met in his earlier visit to Spain, when he also became involved with a family from a poor, a republican area of Madrid. When he revisits the area, he meets another family being supported by the efforts of Sofia, who remains a left-wing sympathiser. Harry and Sofia find their relationship develops. The existence Arion murdered clerical relative provides yet another interesting layer of complication that really does bring home the brutality of the civil war.

As the plot of the novel Winter In Madrid unfolds, provides the reader with a strong desire to uncover its secrets. Sansom is a real story teller and the book works extremely well on the simple level of a thriller. But it also remains a faithful-largely faithful to the events as they happened and the individuals who perpetrated them. And it achieves its end of describing the complexity of relations in Spain-in the political, economic and social, with great success. In addition, it manages to sustain a clear position of its own and without the use of polemic.

Winter In Madrid thus attempts significantly more than most populist fiction dare even try. What is more, Winter In Madrid achieves its aim with remarkable success, even if, on occasions, its plot devices may seem a little artificial. But they what plots, including those that happen in war, are not artificial?

Philip Spires

Author of Mission and A Fool Knoten, African novels set in Kenya

http://www.philipspires.co.uk/

Migwani is a small town in the Kitui District, eastern Kenya. My books examine how social and economic change impact on the lives of ordinary people. They portray characters whose identity is bound up with their home area, but whose futures are determined by the globalized world in which they live.