Gurney, Alan

views updated

GURNEY, Alan

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Home—Suffolk, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, W. W. Norton, 500 5th Ave., New York, NY 10110.

CAREER: Writer. Has also worked as a yacht designer and lecturer on trips to the polar regions.

WRITINGS:

Below the Convergence: Voyages toward Antarctica,1699-1839, Norton (New York, NY), 1997. The Race to the White Continent, Norton (New York, NY), 2000.

Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation, Norton (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Alan Gurney's background as a designer of yachts has served him well in his nonfiction books about sailing adventures. In Below the Convergence: Voyages toward Antarctica, 1699-1839, The Race to the White Continent, and Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation the author describes the exploration of the southern seas and the most important instrument ever developed for aiding ocean navagation: the compass.

The existence of a huge southern land mass had been suspected since the time of the ancient Greeks, but proving that theory was made difficult by the inhospitable conditions of Earth's lower ocean latitudes. Fierce storms and treacherous ice masses were only some of the challenges faced by those seeking to discover the Antarctic continent. In Below the Convergence, Gurney chronicles these early voyages, including the expedition of astronomer Edmond Halley in 1699 and the one made by seal-hunter John Balleny in 1839. His book is "a riveting read," according to an Economist contributor, who had special praise for the author's "descriptions of the search for more accurate measurement of longitude, of the Royal Navy's unending fight against scurvy, and of the unthinking depredations wreaked by the sealing and whaling industries in Antarctic waters." Below the Convergence also includes material on common, often deadly problems of the early days of sailing, such as scurvy, food preservation, and accurate navigation.

Gurney continued his history of the discovery of Antarctica in The Race to the White Continent. This book focuses on the three-way race to reach Antarctica, carried out by American, British, and French adventurers. It is "meticulous historical accuracy fleshed out with plenty of on-the-scene detail and action," commented Raymond L. Puffer in Kliatt. "Gurney has a definite knack for portraying personalities and situations, and for carrying the action forward, minute by minute." An Economist reviewer wrot that, "Full of arcane detail, and written with delicate dry humour, this is a hugely enjoyable account."

Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation details the invention and perfection of the navigational compass. Although the instrument was first used in twelfth-century China, early compasses were subject to interference from heavy seas, gunfire, or even the iron that made up part of the ship. It took some seven hundred years to perfect the instrument, which came to be considered absolutely vital for good navigation. At one point, the compass was considered so essential to safe travel that anyone found tampering with one might be punished by having his hand affixed to one of the ship's masts by a dagger. Gurney writes "with a novelist's eye for detail," commented Gregory Ross in American Scientist. A Publishers Weekly reviewer praised the author's "exhaustive research" and called the book an "engaging foray into vistas and voyages of the past."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, September-October, 2004, Gregory Ross, review of Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation, p. 467.

Booklist, February 1, 1997, Gilbert Taylor, review of Below the Convergence: Voyages to Antarctica, 1699-1839, p. 922; September 15, 2000, Eric Robbins, review of The Race to the White Continent, p. 214; June 1, 2004, Gilbert Taylor, review of Compass, p. 1677.

Economist, May 17, 1997, review of Below the Convergence, p. S6; August 10, 2002, review of The Race to the White Continent.

Geographical, October, 2004, Nick Smith, review of Compass, p. 83.

Kliatt, September, 2002, Raymond L. Puffer, review of The Race to the White Continent, p. 40.

Library Journal, September 15, 2000, Edward Gibson, review of The Race to the White Continent, p. 93.

Publishers Weekly, December 30, 1996, review of Below the Convergence, p. 50; August 7, 2000, review of Race to the White Continent, p. 82; May 3, 2004, review of Compass, p. 182.

Yachting, November, 1983, Ted Jones, "'Windward Passage' Everybody's Sweetheart," p. 80.