Lady Franklin's Revenge

The remarkable life of one of Britain's greatest female explorers

An exhaustive and scrupulously researched biography.

McGoogan's sharp insight has portrayed a deliciously satisfying portrait.

'Ken McGoogan has written a scrupulous, surprising, illuminating and, dare one say it, affectionate biography of a woman whose life as a diarist, traveller and social reformer will come to surpass many of her better-known contemporaries. A woman who, in her vigorous and relentless quest for the truth concerning the fate of her husband and his search for the Northwest Passage, has done considerably more to map and make known the kaleidoscopic maze of the Canadian Arctic than a boatload of less well equipped adventurers'

This well-written, fast-paced book presents a fascinating picture not only of this iconic widow but also of the age itself.

Ken McGoogan is a Canadian writer - historian, biographer, novelist and journalist. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed bestseller Fatal Passage, about Scottish Arctic adventurer John Rae, which won the Writers' Trust of Canada Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize, the Canadian Authors' Association History Award and the Grant MacEwan Award. It also won a US Christopher Award as a work of artistic excellence that 'affirms the highest values of the human spirit'. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed Ancient Mariner, a biography of the British explorer Samuel Hearne. He lives with his family in Toronto, Canada.

Born into a wealthy London family in late-eighteenth-century England, Jane Griffin enjoyed nothing like the opportunities available to men of her class. And yet she became a world traveller, ranging far off the beaten path of Grand-Tour Europe to explore Russia, Greece, the Holy Land and northern Africa. She rode a donkey into Nazareth, sailed a rat-infested boat up the Nile River, and, at age of seventy, circumnavigated the globe in rough sailing ships. 
 
Jane married Captain John Franklin at thirty-six. She helped him seize the opportunity of a lifetime - leadership of a Royal Navy expedition destined, supposedly, to solve the final riddle of the Northwest Passage. After Franklin disappeared into the Arctic, she badgered the Admiralty into dispatching dozens of ships to locate him; she financed voyages through public subscription, paid for others out of her own pocket, and inspired even the president of the United States to contribute to the search. 
 
In 1854, when explorer John Rae returned from the Arctic with news that the final survivors of the Franklin expedition, while starving to death, had degenerated into cannibalism, Jane enlisted the celebrated Charles Dickens to repudiate him. She then sent Leopold McClintock to the area Rae had specified, and he brought back the evidence she sought, exonerating Franklin personally and opening the way to her creation of a legend.

Fatal Passage

The untold story of Scotsman John Rae, the Arctic adventurer who discovered the fate of Franklin and the navigable link in the Northwest passage

In Ken McGoogan's artful telling, John Rae emerges from the shadows to take his place among the most intriguing of the 19th century Arctic explorers. This is delightful reading

Andrea Barrett, author The Voyage of the Narwhal

A riveting story - backed by sold research - that illuminates a fascinating chapter in the annals of Arctic exploration

An overdue book that makes an important contribution to Arctic exploration history and yet remains compulsively readable for the non-specialist

A riveting story of courage and determination, high adventure and imperial ambition... Excellent

A tale of ambition and high adventure... a passionate redemption of Rae's rightful place in history

KEN McGOOGAN is a Canadian writer - historian, biographer, novelist and journalist. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed bestseller Fatal Passage about Scottish Arctic adventurer John Rae, which won the Writers' Trust of Canada Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize, the Canadian Authors' Association History Award and the Grant MacEwan Award. It also won a US Christopher Award as a work of artistic excellence that 'affirms the highest values of the human spirit'. The author lives with his family in Toronto, Canada.

The true story of the remarkable John Rae - Arctic traveller and Hudson's Bay Company doctor - FATAL PASSAGE is a tale of imperial ambition and high adventure. In 1854 Rae solved the two great Arctic mysteries: the fate of the doomed Franklin expedition and the location of the last navigable link in the Northwest Passage. 
 
But Rae was to be denied the recognition he so richly deserved. On returning to London, he faced a campaign of denial and vilification led by two of the most powerful people in Victorian England: Lady Jane Franklin, the widow of the lost Sir John, and Charles Dickens, the most influential writer of the age. A remarkable story of courage and determination, FATAL PASSAGE is Ken McGoogan's passionate redemption of Rae's rightful place in history. In this richly documented and illustrated work, McGoogan captures the essence of one man's indomitable spirit.

Ken McGoogan

In 1757, when twelve-year-old Samuel Hearne joined the Royal Navy as an apprentice to the famous fighting captain Samuel Hood, he was embarking on a life of high adventure. This young sailor would become the first European to reach the Arctic coast of North America, the author of a classic work of exploration literature, and the man who inspired one of the greatest poems in the English language. Yet, for over two centuries, Hearne's place in history has been a subject of dispute. In ANCIENT MARINER, Ken McGoogan paints a vivid portrait of life in the eighteenth century, from London through to the farthest reaches of North America. After serving as a midshipman during the Seven Years War, Hearne joined the Hudson's Bay Company and was posted to the Arctic coast. From there he embarked on an overland quest for a fabled copper mine - also hoping to discover the Northwest Passage. In his epic account, A JOURNEY TO THE NORTHERN OCEAN, Hearne described this trek, marked by hardship, near-starvation and culture shock. Joining forces with the legendary Dene leader Matonabbee, and closely observing the people, wildlife and terrain as he went, Hearne travelled more than 3,500 miles, mostly on foot. His journey culminated in the infamous massacre at 'Bloody Falls' at the mouth of the Coppermine River - an event, McGoogan suggests, that changed him for ever. 
In a fascinating piece of literary detective work, McGoogan also determines that, having returned to London to live out his final days, Hearne met Samuel Taylor Coleridge and inspired the poet to write his classic poem, THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

Ken McGoogan

Books by Ken McGoogan

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