Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan - Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (Paperback) 16-03-2023

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE 2022 A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2022 _______________ 'Rigorous, deft and entertaining ... a sparkling read' - The Spectator 'The ride is thrilling ... a work of serious scholarship' - Sunday Telegraph _______________ For centuries, Ferdinand Magellan has been celebrated as a hero: a noble adventurer who circumnavigated the globe in an extraordinary feat of human bravery; a paragon of daring and chivalry. Now historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto draws on extensive and meticulous research to conduct a dazzling investigation into Magellan's life, his character and his ill-fated voyage. He reveals that Magellan did not attempt - much less accomplish - a journey around the globe, and that in his own lifetime, the explorer was abhorred as a traitor, reviled as a tyrant and dismissed as a failure. Fernandez-Armesto probes the passions and tensions that drove Magellan to adventure and drew him to disaster: the pride that became arrogance,