ENDEAVOURING BANKS,

EDITED BY NEIL CHAMBERS, NEWSOUTH BOOKS.

A handsome tome hailing pioneering naturalist Joseph Banks, depicted on the cover in a satirical etching from 1772. This was a time when achievers were mocked for exploring what were regarded as “worthless enquiries into microscopically small objects”. With asses’ ears and elaborate hair, “dandy” Banks stands astride the “Anatarktic” and the “Artick”, brandishing his nets. Yet Chambers sits Banks in his true light in his frontispiece portrait, cloaked in robes preserved for Maori nobility. Sir David Attenborough pays tribute to the “passionate naturalist” in a foreword and to the specimens, maps and drawings made by the collectors and artists who accompanied Banks on the 1768-1771 voyage onboard HM Bark Endeavour. Lieutenant James Cook was commander on a historic mission into the Pacific, but it was the boy Banks whose findings are displayed in this glorious book.