Alan Villiers: Voyager of the Winds

In this first full biography of Alan Villiers, based on extensive research in both Australia and England, Kate Lance has produced a fascinating portrait of Villiers and the world he inhabited. Alan Villiers was born in Melbourne in 1903 and, from boyhood, had a passion for the sea and sailing. In 1921, after a lucky break won him a job as a journalist on the Hobart Mercury, he produced his first book based on his experience on a whaling expedition to the Antarctic, soon followed by his account of the voyage of the Herzogin Cecilie on its voyage from Australia to Great Britain. Over the next decades he sailed all over the world, including his own ship, the Joseph Conrad. Lance depicts the legendary sailor as a man of contradictions, who lived for the sea and adventure, and who is now respected and recognised as a brilliant writer, photographer, journalist and adventurer.

Recipient of the prestigious Mountbatten Maritime Award, 2009. The Awards Committee said: 'For her truly illuminating biography of Alan Villiers, a complex and sometime difficult man who had an immense influence on the popular understanding of voyaging under sail. Voyager of the Winds is outstandingly researched and beautifully written as it unfurls the true character of this extraordinary seafarer.'