Biography

The extra­or­di­nary, must-read sto­ry of the brave, bold Hubert Wilkins — Aus­trali­a’s most adven­tur­ous explor­er, nat­u­ral­ist, pho­tog­ra­ph­er, war hero, avi­a­tor, spy and dare­dev­il — brought to life by Aus­trali­a’s great­est sto­ry­teller. Sir Hubert Wilkins is one of the most remark­able Aus­tralians who ever lived. The son of pio­neer pas­toral­ists in South Aus­tralia, Hubert stud­ied engi­neer­ing before mov­ing on to pho­tog­ra­phy, then sail­ing for Eng­land and a job pro­duc­ing films with the Gau­mont Film Co. Brave and bold, he became a polar expe­di­tion­er, a bril­liant war pho­tog­ra­ph­er, a spy in the Sovi­et Union, a pio­neer­ing avi­a­tor-nav­i­ga­tor, a death-defy­ing sub­mariner — all while being an explor­er and chron­i­cler of the plan­et and its life forms that would do Vas­co da Gama and Sir David Atten­bor­ough proud. As a WW1 pho­tog­ra­ph­er he was twice award­ed the Mil­i­tary Cross for brav­ery under fire, the only Aus­tralian pho­tog­ra­ph­er in any war to be dec­o­rat­ed. He went on expe­di­tion with Sir Ernest Shack­le­ton, led a ground­break­ing nat­ur­al his­to­ry study in Aus­tralia and was knight­ed in 1928 for his avi­a­tion exploits, but many more astound­ing achieve­ments would fol­low. Wilkins’ quest for knowl­edge and polar explo­rations were life­long pas­sions and his mis­sions to polar regions aboard the sub­ma­rine Nau­tilus the stuff of leg­end. With mas­ter­ful sto­ry­telling skill, Peter FitzSi­mons illu­mi­nates the life of Hubert Wilkins and his incred­i­ble achieve­ments. Thrills and spills, der­ring-do, new worlds dis­cov­ered — this is the most unfor­get­table tale of the most extra­or­di­nary life lived by any Australian.