Vanity Fair UK – September 2019

PAPER TRAILS From the British Isles to outer space,

these pages will send you into transports of delight, by Sarah Edworthy

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In September 2014, a dark shape

glimpsed on a sonar screen by a marine

archaeologist operating south of King

William Island in northern Canada

solved a mystery of 168 years. The wreck

discernible in shallow water was HMS

Erebus. Named after the Greek god of

darkness, she had set sail in May 1845

with her sister ship H MS Te r r o r on a

mission to navigate and chart the

Northwest Passage. Both vessels

vanished, prompting the Victorian

equivalent of the quest to find flight

MH370—extensive search expeditions,

survival theories, even macabre

evidence of cannibalism. In Erebus: The

Story of a Ship, Michael Palin brings the

boat back to life and, with it, a strong

sense of the unremitting bleakness of

the Arctic and of the cast of spirited

characters who spearheaded the golden

era of British exploration in the cause of

scientific discovery and imperial

expansion. In unravelling the details of

Erebus’ final voyage, Palin conjures an

enduring poignancy in the fate of the

icebound ship and the desperation of the

crew who abandoned her and, one by

one, died of scurvy, hypothermia,

starvation and possibly lead poisoning

from government-supplied tinned food.

Palin’s graphically researched story

ends with his own pilgrimage to the

wreck site. With the astonishing ease of

21st-century travel, he soars 35,000ft

above the moving jigsaw of polar ice and

sails towards Erebus’ remains on a

fully-staffed Arctic cruise ship, only to be

defied by the same forms of hostile and

impenetrable ice that thwarted the Sir

John Franklin-led expedition. Nature

again proves dominant.

From Palin’s story of two ships to two

appearances of a particular car: the Ford

Model T, aka the affordable automobile

that launched the American Dream over

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1. Bentley: A Century of Elegance and Speed by Marco Makaus (Giorgio Nada Editore). 2. Two Wheels South: A Motorcycle Adventure from Brooklyn to Ushuaia by Matias

Corea (Gestalten). 3. Cockpit Confidential: Everything you Need to Know about Air Travel by Patrick Smith (Sourcebooks). 4. Beached in Calabria by Ian Ross (Arcadia Books).

This is your

captain speaking... with

answers to the pantheon of

anxieties suffered by even the most

inveterate travellers. Demystifying

fallacies and debunking conspiracy

theories, experienced pilot Patrick

Smith explains the reassuring reality

about cabin air, turbulence,

aborted landings and all

those strange noises.

Two friends, two

BMW R80 G/Ss, 168 days,

20,000 miles, 13 countries in

North, Central and South America,

66 petrol tanks, five flat tyres, one

crash: it all adds up to an epic mix of

anecdote and advice (what to pack,

where to camp, expect setbacks)

to inspire you to venture

into the unknown.

Insta-sensation Ted

Gushue, a much-loved presence

on the international rally and party

circuit, supplies the portfolio photography

in Bentley: A Century of Elegance and

Speed—Continentals of the Nineties, a

monumental, lavishly illustrated story of the

coupés produced by the celebrated British marque.

Known for his work as ambassador for St. Moritz

and for the pictures that thrill the 592,000

followers of @petrolicious, Gushue’s images

of these special editions will entrance and

seduce readers from Luxembourg

to Hotel Chateau Marmont

in Los Angeles.

VANITY FAIR EN ROUTE SEPTEMBER 2019

En Route Books

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