Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire

Early in the text I gained the expectation that Mr. Winchester sought to visit all the outposts and give us his interesting and inciteful impressions. Then there was the long and tragic story about Diego Garcia and the Indian Ocean Territories. I think I saw a soap box somewhere hidden in the text. Very interesting, but I wondered: how can he give this kind of attention to all of the colonies? The visits to Gibralter, Tristan de Cunha, Assencion, and St. Helena were superb. I would like to have learned more about the Falklands today and a lot more about the unvisited South Georgia Island, which CAN be conveniently visited. Pitcairn Island was given over to a story that seemed to me to gratuitously ridicule an eccentric American. Again, the work offered no visit and no real insight. It appears Mr. Winchester tired of the project half-way through and quit with the job unfinished. Perhaps he ran out of soapbox. Badly done, Mr. Winchester.

Book was enjoyable and informative like his other books. My only complaint was more with the volume level of the cd. For some reason it was so low that I had to almost max out the volume in my car to hear. I have not encountered this before. Very strange.

Simon Winchester has become my favorite author and the experience is enhanced when he reads his own books. Nice patrician English accent, interesting topics, and educated approach all combine to make a strong whole. This book is not my favorite among his that I have read or heard, but it does not matter. Winchester would make the story of the phone book interesting!