About this episode

The episode discusses the life and contributions of George Forster during James Cook's second voyage.

A month before Cook was intending to embark on his second voyage, he took his ship, the Resolution, for a test run on the Thames. He had a particular reason for concern: Joseph Banks, the naturalist on the Endeavour, had grandly assembled a staff of fifteen and built a superstructure on the ship. Finding that it rendered the ship hopelessly top-heavy and unsuitable, Cook instructed that it be removed – whereupon Banks threw his toys out of the pram and said he wouldn’t come. His replacement, engaged at very short notice, was a German-born botanist called Reinhold Forster. His field experience came from a trip in Central Asia, on which he was accompanied by his 10-year-old son George. This magnificent book is about that son, who – aged 17 – accompanied his father on the Resolution. Where his father was a difficult man, detested by everyone, George delighted all who met him. Clever, a fine linguist, draughtsman, botanist and writer, he was also unusually interested in others. Time and again on the voyage, he noted that the contact between indigenous people and Europeans did not go well for the indigenous people, and he was dismayed. An observant man interested in connections rather…

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