3 May 2024
The Wager
Richard takes a Transatlantic call luckily in a time when it's much easier to traverse the oceans, with David Grann the best-selling author and journalist, about his fantastic book The Wager - A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder. It's an unbelievable and remarkable true story which has much to tell us about our history and the present day. David talks about what it's like to work on a book that goes on to be an Oscar Nominated move, Killers of the Flower Moon and how he discovered the largely forgotten story of The Wager, the meticulous research required to create a book like this and how to deal with conflicting accounts of the same story. Also the surprisingly horrendous effect of scurvy, the difficulty of persuading men to become sailors at a time when death seemed almost inevitable, the class divisions and racism that made the crew of The Wager's nightmare voyage even more nightmarish, how a cut off ear was the impetus for all of this madness and David's slightly insane trip to visit Wager Island and why it was worthwhile. A really excellent chat about a highly recommended book.
Buy the book here - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-real-hero-pa-david-grann/3440772?ean=9781471183706
Or the audiobook here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audible-The-Wager/dp/B0BPTL14T5/
