Wayward Sailor : In Search of the Real Tristan Jones Review
He died in 1995, but his nautical adventure books continue to bring entertainment and escape to legions of fans worldwide. He was larger than life, perhaps the most successful sailing writer of the twentieth century. But, as Anthony Dalton's meticulously researched biography reveals, Tristan Jones was not who he said he was.
Wayward Sailor began as an uncomplicated tribute to a great adventurer and writer, but one line of inquiry branched to another, plunging Dalton into a three-year odyssey of his own. With the cooperation of Tristan's friends and supporters, Dalton pursued Tristan's life through correspondence, logbooks, government documents, and interviews worldwide. With each new revelation, Tristan's voyage through life seemed more and more like his greatest adventure.
His real name was Arthur Jones. He was born in Liverpool in 1929, the illegitimate son of a working-class Lancashire girl, and he grew up in orphanages with little education. Too young to see action in the World War II naval battles he would later write about so movingly, he joined the Royal Navy in 1946 and served fourteen unremarkable years.
Arthur Jones then bought an old sailboat and tried his hand at smuggling whiskey cross-Channel. In his early thirties he sailed into a Mediterranean limbo, scraping a living from charters by day and haunting the bars of Ibiza by night. When he was drunk, which was often, he could be loud and obnoxious and had the scars to prove it. He had no family, no attachments, no accomplishments.
Then came a midlife sea change. Arthur Jones looked into his future, imagined greatness, and began to claw his way to it. Having taught himself to sail, he taught himself to write. He was a natural at both. As Tristan Jones, in his midforties, he sailed out of Brazil's Mato Grosso and into a Greenwich Village apartment to write six books in three years and reinvent his past.
The Tristan Jones of his books was born in a storm at sea in 1924 on his father's tramp steamer; was torpedoed three time in epic World War II engagements; completed the first circumnavigation of Iceland; traveled farther north and farther up the Amazon River than any sailor before him; and sailed more than 400,000 miles, 180,000 of them solo. Readers loved his books and crowded his lectures and signings. He had a bard's voice and a street performer's delivery. He had more renown than he could have dreamed.
Having invented a life, Tristan Jones tried to live it. After the amputation of his left leg in 1982 he sailed more than halfway around the world. He lost his right leg in 1991 yet still returned briefly to sea. But as his body failed him, so too did his spirits. It was as if the life from which he'd bodily lifted himself were pulling him down again. He died a bitter man.
Wayward Sailor is the biography Tristan Jones did not want. His books were autobiographical, he said; there was no more to tell. But there was. Wayward Sailor is the last Tristan Jones story and the most incredible one of all: the story of a man who invented himself.
This is a fascinating biography of a poseur despair. Tristan Jones of the Royal Navy, had a lot of skill as a danger autobiographical narrator's adventures at sea and on land. Unfortunately, as Anthony Dalton said in a book as an attempt to spread the glory Jones begins, it seems that most (perhaps all) of his stories are false captivating. Composed. Did not take place.
old salts are required in order to tell stories of the sea. "Memories, is not. Itcome as a disappointment to all those who, as I discover to hell Jones enjoyed books, that this as good as ice! The trip was incredible and really nothing more. I am a big stories high, I confess (so big that you just continue to believe), but fiction should be labeled as such.
Anthony Dalton public documents showed that the old sea dog, who died in 1995 just do not know where he pretends to be, as he claims to be,there. Dalton himself was not willing, the evidence until it becomes overwhelming accepted.
Example: Jones has written a convincing "memory" heart of oak in the Royal Navy serving in World War II. 'S beautiful so that even the biggest critic Paul Fussell noted in hot-tempered. It appears that the Navy records show, Tristan Jones was not even gone to the RN to the second world war. And so on.
I used to be be a big fan of his, too.
More Reviews for Wayward Sailor : In Search of the Real Tristan Jones
Faint praise, faint truth - sr - vt
All biography is fiction. This work is no exception. His goal is both proven and imagined personal disappointments and failures of another author's adventures. I say Mr Dalton not imagine Tristan Jones, who apparently never met Mr. Jones, and was not present for one of the events described in this lifetime. In this book, he argues, however, a number of convictions on his reading out openly journal entries, interviews, and some memories posted by others.
A reader of this book feels almost nothing about the true voice of Tristan Jones. Dalton only representative of its most violent. We see drinking little warmth in this portrait of a sailor rum short stature, and none of the humor. We are shown pieces of generosity that if they are declared by selfish motives. The bulk of this book is that each character listing round average, of deception, irresponsibility devoted to the act of bullying and a personal failure, which can be collected andapparently independently verified.
Unfortunately, most records of the alleged facts are obvious thoughts and appreciation, not the difficult history. The book is full of "Tristan" should haves "must" have "and" safe. " Jones's books are mentioned but not presented.
In an example estimate biography, the author describes a picture of the world into the sea when the ship is tossed with clean lines do not show any trip to Dalton Jonesbut false trips.
However, a less punitive readers feel that the roads were considered. Dalton has never seen that painting represents a forgery (or us). And if it were fabricated to travel one way for the test wrong, why not instead of Jones threw them overboard to make room for the Sea Dart supplies for the trip to Lake Titicaca in South America? He tried to trick a lemon?
In order not to suspect this statement is the underlyingMotivation is part of the author of jealousy, we are thrown some bones occasionally interrupt the darkness. Jones veil real verifiable exploits were admirable, according to Dalton. . . If he not only .....( fill in the blank). And "of course, necessary that the readers also know, according to Dalton, Jones, badly dressed, was born out of wedlock, was gay, an alcoholic, and smelled. Obviously, there should no reading Jones' The incredible journey without completelyimportant information.
There are many things to read with caution in this document. At a time when tragic personal companion veil of time, Jones was found dead in a parking lot of a heroin overdose in Thailand. The conclusion of the book, based on any evidence presented in its pages, is that his friend Dalton seconds, was murdered by a drug in the Golden Triangle Lord. " Jones is a coward by the author on the grounds that he had not come to the same conclusion and communicate labeledworldwide.
Also, the fact that Jones, the cause of death as heart failure, rather than have immediate announcement of his friend's heroin overdose, possibly other statements taken as a fear. What about denial, pain, tenderness, the memory of his friend, depression, shame, or even a complexity of emotions? He was the man, flat, or the biographer is? The fact is that neither we nor the author of this book know that Tristan Jones thought or felt at any time about anything. Ewhich certainly is not and must not be reduced by some estimates a third hand simplistic fiction itself.
But what is literary Jones? If we do it? Well, if you believe that the old tradition of storytelling of the sea in an exaggerated need to end the cynicism and seemingly rational search for truth millennium we are facing, then the book presentation for you. Tristan Jones is bunk. Betterthese pages at their face value, so good.
For me crazy preferably the value of this spoonful of bitter medicine was hard to understand. Is it useful? I do not know. Homeward Jones must be said, makes the world a bigger place than it actually was. While the work of Dalton has done a lot smaller than it is. So, be even handed, I had to give four stars, the first, which contained one of the lies. . . and give itits truth, humor and humanity.
Truth is Stranger than Fiction - Fiddlesticks - United States
After reading all the books Trisan Jones and recommended over the years, I found this book a must read for good. And "rejuvenated my respect for Tristan, but in a different way. It was a great storyteller and his creator gave him a gift for writing. He decided to do more to support the cause .... history. This is not the choice, I would do, but I'm not Tristan. I saw big ego to do worse, but only some have the gift of writing stories for our pleasure and income. Tristanwould not be the first person to be I know who lives by faith, "Let the truth in the sense of a good story." I was too angry to know that I have been deceived? Yes, I was even surprised that a man created? A witness who worth the time, this book is read. I would be interested in this book, I had not read good books in the Tristan was. For those of you who want to read a good read Heart of Oak by Tristan, read the book by Anthony Dalton. The band blow you away.
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