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Banks

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Banks

By: Grantlee Kieza
Narrated by: Patrick Harvey
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About this listen

By award-winning best-selling writer Grantlee Kieza, Banks is a rich and rollicking biography of one of Britain's most colourful and successful scientists.

Lust, science, adventure - Joseph Banks and his voyages of discovery.

Explorer, naturalist and president of Britain's Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks was a larger-than-life character best known for his promotion of science. In 1768 Banks joined Captain James Cook's expedition to the South Pacific. The 30,000 specimens he brought back generated enormous interest, as did the sometimes racy written account of the journey, which chronicled his frequent amorous exploits.

Banks' passion for the new and unusual flora of Australia led him to recommend Botany Bay to parliament as an excellent place for a penal settlement, despite the fact the soil was poor and there was no fresh running water, but he later became the foremost expert on everything Australian.

©2020 Grantlee Kieza (P)2020 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Biological Sciences Botany & Plants Historical Science Explorer Banking
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Well, I knew of Joseph Banks. I had no idea of how long and how detailed a contribution to knowledge in science he had made.

The detail is Amazing

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The story of Banks has been well researched and I enjoyed learning about his life and achievements. Whilst the narrator was clear with his annunciation, his pronunciation of many names of towns, surnames and words in general was somewhat lacking and cringemaking and it is disappointing that this wasn’t adequately checked during the process of recording.

Cringemaking

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This explains much of Banks as I assume can be amassed. Informative and describes Banks good and bad characteristics, and achievements. Narration was at times a bit quick, but sounds weird slowed down. Had to concentrate to keep track at times. (Might say more about me than the narration!)

Detailed full history of Banks life

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I have enjoyed two other biographies by Grantley Kieza, those of Macquarie and Paterson, and this one is of the same high standard. It was not quite as interesting as the others because I knew so much about Captain Cook's voyages, and Banks' important part in them - but all that had to be told of course. I found the non-Cook sections, before and after the voyages, more interesting, and they certainly showed what a major figure Banks was, not only in science but in public affairs generally, and as a wealthy benefactor for many people and organizations. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Australian and British history. The narrator made quite a few howlers in pronunciation. Is there no producer present to make sure the narrator gets these things right? - surely it would be easy, with search engines, to say place names properly. If they are wrong, they lessen our trust in the narrator. But generally, Patrick Harvey was a good narrator of the story.

Splendid biography of a great man

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What a life. Banks certainly got around. This is an adventure story that is full of excitement but also a scholarly well researched tale as well.

Thoroughly enjoyable

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This is an excellent and humain history of a man whose contribution to understanding botany is an important one regardless of his personal flaws and those of his time.

A truely fine history

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Interesting, detailed, reachable and brilliantly read. Highly recommended. Great to hear such a balanced story, sensitive to all those impacted by colonialism.

Brilliant narration and story

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It’s so nice to hear a behind the scenes account of the exploration and foundation of modern Australia. I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book

Outstanding

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I loved this book. I felt like I ate each chapter with vigor because it cross-hatched so well with all the other books I have read on the circumnavigation of Australia, voyages of discovery and science. It brought out the uniqueness of the man Sir Joseph Banks, the thinker, the scientist and the philanthropic activity of his scientific persuit.

The narration at times was a little irritating. I felt there were a number of misprononcuations and hurried sentences which obscured the meaning slightly.

Joseph Banks, an uncommonly unique thinker .

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A well-researched and scholarly book, but the reading was dull and monotonous, with some mispronounced words,especially foreign names.

Scholarly book,monotonous reading.

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