Mike Layland’s fourth and most recent book Turmoil: The Life and Times of Philip Hankin turns a vast quantity of meticulous research into a readable and often exciting page turner. The addition of many carefully selected illustrations, photographs, and maps throughout the text enhance the quick moving narrative, all of which help visualize early colonial British Columbia. Hankin’s special achievements and tumultuous life make for compelling reading.
The book will be of interest to Search for Sir John Franklin enthusiasts.
Layland has a chapter devoted to the visit of Lady Jane Franklin and her niece Sophie Cracroft to Victoria, Vancouver Island in 1861. Hankin played a central role in guiding them around, including a trip up the Fraser River to Yale. Layland manages to put the reader into several scenes as if events are unfolding in real time.
And, this is where Layland excels. The book avoids the professorial and often pedantic approach to writing history where stories are narrated like adding up sums on a spreadsheet, where too many recitations, and a vast quantity of numbered footnotes hinder reading enjoyment.
When Lady Franklin departed from San Francisco, California, aboard a coastal steamship on the way to Esquimalt, she carried with her copies of the American first edition of Frances Leopold McClintock’s THE VOYAGE OF THE ‘FOX’ IN THE ARCTIC SEAS. A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and His Companions. The book was originally published in England in 1859. With financial assistance from a public subscription, Lady Franklin sponsored a private expedition, with Frances Leopold McClintock commanding, to search for relics, diaries and logbooks from Sir John Franklin’s last expedition in the area of King William Island.
Lady Franklin probably purchased the American edition of the Voyage of the Fox in San Francisco. How many copies she brought along to present as gifts is unknown. However, I know that there were at least two copies. Many years ago I purchased in Victoria and in Duncan on Vancouver Island copies that she had inscribed, signed and presented as gifts to public libraries. At some point, the libraries ejected these oldish books. They re-emerged some time later at an antiquarian bookfair and a second-hand bookshop. I sold both copies to one of my favorite customers. One was in nearly unread condition with the usual rubber stamps. The other was rebound from having been read many times. Both books were therefore unique in presentation with different signed inscriptions.
Here is part of the publisher’s blurb:
Turmoil traces a remarkable man’s life from birth, painting an engrossing portrait of both one individual and of a whole region in flux. Philip Hankin touched the history of the islands first as a member of the navy working on the first accurate marine chart of local waters and delineating the boundary with the United States, then as a linguistic enthusiast and negotiator with Indigenous communities, and, finally, as a as a superintendent of the police, an administrator under three governors, and acting head of government on four separate occasions.
https://touchwoodeditions.com/collections/michael-layland/products/turmoil
https://www.michaellayland.com/
The book will be of interest to Search for Sir John Franklin enthusiasts.
Layland has a chapter devoted to the visit of Lady Jane Franklin and her niece Sophie Cracroft to Victoria, Vancouver Island in 1861. Hankin played a central role in guiding them around, including a trip up the Fraser River to Yale. Layland manages to put the reader into several scenes as if events are unfolding in real time.
And, this is where Layland excels. The book avoids the professorial and often pedantic approach to writing history where stories are narrated like adding up sums on a spreadsheet, where too many recitations, and a vast quantity of numbered footnotes hinder reading enjoyment.
When Lady Franklin departed from San Francisco, California, aboard a coastal steamship on the way to Esquimalt, she carried with her copies of the American first edition of Frances Leopold McClintock’s THE VOYAGE OF THE ‘FOX’ IN THE ARCTIC SEAS. A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and His Companions. The book was originally published in England in 1859. With financial assistance from a public subscription, Lady Franklin sponsored a private expedition, with Frances Leopold McClintock commanding, to search for relics, diaries and logbooks from Sir John Franklin’s last expedition in the area of King William Island.
Lady Franklin probably purchased the American edition of the Voyage of the Fox in San Francisco. How many copies she brought along to present as gifts is unknown. However, I know that there were at least two copies. Many years ago I purchased in Victoria and in Duncan on Vancouver Island copies that she had inscribed, signed and presented as gifts to public libraries. At some point, the libraries ejected these oldish books. They re-emerged some time later at an antiquarian bookfair and a second-hand bookshop. I sold both copies to one of my favorite customers. One was in nearly unread condition with the usual rubber stamps. The other was rebound from having been read many times. Both books were therefore unique in presentation with different signed inscriptions.
Here is part of the publisher’s blurb:
Turmoil traces a remarkable man’s life from birth, painting an engrossing portrait of both one individual and of a whole region in flux. Philip Hankin touched the history of the islands first as a member of the navy working on the first accurate marine chart of local waters and delineating the boundary with the United States, then as a linguistic enthusiast and negotiator with Indigenous communities, and, finally, as a as a superintendent of the police, an administrator under three governors, and acting head of government on four separate occasions.
https://touchwoodeditions.com/collections/michael-layland/products/turmoil
https://www.michaellayland.com/
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