Simon Winchester made it his mission to visit the forgotten outposts of the British Empire. A century ago the Empire spanned the globe, hundreds of islands, dozens of countries and protectorates and the sun truly never set on the territories. But the Empire shrunk and collapsed in on itself yet straggling islands across the planet still lay claim or are claimed by the shadow of day's long gone.

Sure, as other people have said, it's a dated book. But it was written in 1985 and reading it with that in mind it's a fascinating travelogue. I loved the author's attempt to "invade" Diego Garcia accompanied by the disappointing story of how residents were evicted and the U.S. put in a major (nuclear) base. The empire has done so many things in its best interest, unfortunately that doesn't always include protecting individual rights.

I also learned a lot about St. Helena where exiles resided for decades (Napoleon, Mbelini - head of the Zulu Nation). I knew nothing about the beauty of the island or of the mansion where Napoleon took his walks and dictated his memoirs, staff on hand and British Guards out of sight.

The Pitcairn islands are the last refuge of Britain in the Pacific not even administered nearby, but instead thousands of miles away from Australia. The resident population shrinking and forgotten. The average British citizen doesn't know much about its current empire. Maybe if you ask they'll say the Isle of Mann or the Faulklands. But these Outposts are historic and present. It's a great read. I love learning the minutia of history: the forgotten places, the discarded histories, and the neglected peoples.

Dated? Maybe, but is history ever dated and does travel lose its romance.

- CV Rick, March 2008

Simon Winchester wrote "Outposts" in 1984, just after the Falklands War and before Hong Kong was turned back over to China. The paperback edition has a new 2003 introduction but contains the same basic text.

This book is a well-written, sometimes whimsical, often sharp-eyed travelogue of Winchester's visits to some of the remaining overseas territories of the former British Empire. The tour includes Diego Garcia, Gibralter, the Atlantic islands such as Ascension and St Helena, Bermuda, the Caribbean islands, the Falklands, Hong Kong, and the Pitcairn group in the Pacific.

Getting to the remoter locations is a significant part of the story. Winchester has to sneak into Diego Garcia by sailboat, only to be booted out by the authorities. He arrives by commercial airliner in the Falklands just days ahead of the Argentine invasion. Getting to the remoter Atlantic islands required a hop on a periodic cargo vessel and favorable weather to actually get ashore. Pitcairn was so remote as to defeat Winchester's efforts to actually visit.

For each outpost, Winchester surveys its imperial past and provides some anecdotes on its often anachronistic present as a colony or overseas dependency. Some places, such as Bermuda and the Caymans, have done well. Some less fortunate places, such as remote Pitcairn and some of the Caribbean islands, are seemingly administered out of stubborn habit. A few, such as Ascension and Diego Garcia, had been leased to the United States to carry out what were once the old Imperial responsibilities.

If poverty and indifferent administration by London is a frequent finding, so is the lingering essential Britishness of many of the inhabitants of the "outposts." Many residents enjoy their remoteness from the modern world, scratching out a living amid the particular charms of their outpost.

At the end of his travels, Winchester ponders the recent handling of the Outposts and their eventual fates. His lingering reverence for Britain's Imperial days competes with his evident distaste for London's indifference for the present. His thoughtful final recommendation is that London release those outposts who wish to go their own way, while integrating and properly caring for those who wish to stay British.

This book is a fascinating and enjoyable if dated travelogue that will be of interest to fans of obscure geography and to students of British history who wonder whatever became of the ruins of Empire.

Another one of Simon Winchester's interesting travelogues. Very eloquent and entertaining. Well researched with only a few dull moments. As a result is excellent for long cross-country drives. The only negative (and hence 4 out of 5 stars) is the fact that the book is a bit dated. When Winchester took his trips to these former colonies of the crown it was back in the 1980s. As a result, obviously, much has changed.

Simon Winchester's book on the remnants of the British Empire is a fine piece of reportage from a geologist turned journalist turned writer.

Part travel book, part history, part reportage, it takes the reader on various fascinating journeys - sea, rail, air - to outposts ranging from fly specks such as Tristan Da Cunha and Pitcairn Island to teeming Hong Kong on the brink of the handover to the PRC and its new status as a special administrative region.

Like all Winchester's books it is well written, with a lovely light touch that makes the read a pleasure. Much recommended to those who enjoy the travel genre

Simon Winchester is an interesting guy. Like Scott Turow, he wanted to be a writer when he was young, but was pushed into something else instead. In Turow's case he became a lawyer; Winchester became a geologist. After working for twenty years as a geologist, he took up writing and has worked at it for the last twenty or twenty-five years. He writes on various non-fiction topics, some of them rather unusual, including the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary, the explosion of Krakatoa, and the San Francisco Earthquake. The current book is a recounting of several years during the late 70s and early 80s when the author worked as a journalist, and contrived to visit all of the inhabited remnants of the British Empire, save the smallest.



Winchester is a gifted writer, and he recreates his visits to each of these "outposts" with the British eccentricity and humor you'd expect from a good writer in this genre. He wouldn't be British if he didn't express some huffy disapproval at the way the British government depopulated the island of Diego Garcia and then leased it to the US Armed forces. At various points the places he describes come off as wonderfully British and yet colonial, that zany combination of efficiency and nonsensical tradition that pervades everything the British did when they were overseas.



I generally enjoyed this book, and would recommend it. It is a bit dated, and some of the predictions haven't come true: for instance, the author predicts that Pitcairn Island will be depopulated by the end of the century, and of course there are still people there. The author makes recommendations as to how the islands should be administered in the future as part of Great Britain, which of course are of little interest to someone who isn't British.



Given the shortcomings recounted above, this is a good book and rather fun. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it.

Simon Winchester is an interesting guy. Like Scott Turow, he wanted to be a writer when he was young, but was pushed into something else instead. In Turow's case he became a lawyer; Winchester became a geologist. After working for twenty years as a geologist, he took up writing and has worked at it for the last twenty or twenty-five years. He writes on various non-fiction topics, some of them rather unusual, including the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary, the explosion of Krakatoa, and the San Francisco Earthquake. The current book is a recounting of several years during the late 70s and early 80s when the author worked as a journalist, and contrived to visit all of the inhabited remnants of the British Empire, save the smallest.

Winchester is a gifted writer, and he recreates his visits to each of these "outposts" with the British eccentricity and humor you'd expect from a good writer in this genre. He wouldn't be British if he didn't express some huffy disapproval at the way the British government depopulated the island of Diego Garcia and then leased it to the US Armed forces. At various points the places he describes come off as wonderfully British and yet colonial, that zany combination of efficiency and nonsensical tradition that pervades everything the British did when they were overseas.

I generally enjoyed this book, and would recommend it. It is a bit dated, and some of the predictions haven't come true: for instance, the author predicts that Pitcairn Island will be depopulated by the end of the century, and of course there are still people there. The author makes recommendations as to how the islands should be administered in the future as part of Great Britain, which of course are of little interest to someone who isn't British.

Given the shortcomings recounted above, this is a good book and rather fun. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it.

Ejoyable stories from the early 1980's by an author who waxes a bit nostalgic for the British Empire. Well written with dry humor. A languid pace. Never dull.

In 1914, the globe was spanned by the British Empire, on which the sun truly never set. As a boy, I collected stamps, and I was in awe of the number of faraway and exotic places that featured the likeness of the British monarch on their issues. It was, perhaps, these colorful bits of paper, along with the tales of Robin Hood, Richard the Lionheart, and King Arthur that engendered in me a lasting love for and fascination with Great Britain. I've visited the mother island on more than a dozen occasions; I long to be there now. Simon Winchester's OUTPOSTS took me in a different direction - outward to the last vestiges of Empire.

British Indian Ocean Territory, Tristan da Cunha, Gibraltar, Ascension Island, St. Helena, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, and the Pitcairn Islands. These, minus Hong Kong - OUTPOSTS was published in 1985 - are now all that are left of the once proud imperial possessions. Simon visited them over a three year period, except the inaccessible Pitcairn, and tells us about his odyssey in this sterling travel narrative.

Winchester, a Brit himself, is ambiguous about the Empire. On one hand, he apparently feels that the Crown's dominions, protectorates, trustee states, mandated territories and colonies were better left to go their separate ways, if only for the sake of political correctness. On the other hand, he maintains that, of all the European colonial empires, Britain's was the one administered with the greatest degree of good intentions. And, Simon isn't above becoming sentimental, as on Tristan da Cunha, a dependency of St. Helena, during a visit by the Colonial Governor:

"A bugle was blown, a banner was raised, a salute was made, an anthem was played - and the Colonial Governor of St. Helena was formally welcomed on to the tiniest and loneliest dependency in the remanent British Empire. I found I was watching it through a strange golden haze, which cleared if I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand: the children looked so proud, so eager to please, so keen to touch the hand from England, from the wellspring of their official existence."

The volume contains a rudimentary map of each colony visited, but no photographs - a deplorable deficiency in any travel essay, I think. I had to go onto the Web to satisfy my curiosity for visuals; the Tristan de Cunha, St.Helena, and Falkland Islands websites are particularly helpful in this regard.

OUTPOSTS is, of course, dated; Hong Kong has long since reverted to the mandarins in Peking. Luckily, I was able to visit the place in 1994 when it was still a jewel in the British crown. Oddly, the chapter on HK is surprisingly short considering the size and importance of the place at the time the book was written. Winchester didn't even mention one of the best E-rides in the world, the short Star Ferry trip from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.

One of the best reasons to read OUTPOSTS, if your interested in the subject, is the author's brief, chatty history of each colony. And then there's the occasional trivia. Did you know, for example, that during the Falkland Islands War a team of Argentine frogman arrived in Spain with plans to blow up Royal Navy ships anchored off Gibraltar? They were arrested by the Spanish police on a tip from British Intelligence. And, do you know the location of the only land border between Holland and France? It's not where you might think.

OUTPOSTS grandly took me to places I shall likely never visit, and I'm indebted to Winchester for that.

In 1914, the globe was spanned by the British Empire, on which the sun truly never set. As a boy, I collected stamps, and I was in awe of the number of faraway and exotic places that featured the likeness of the British monarch on their issues. It was, perhaps, these colorful bits of paper, along with the tales of Robin Hood, Richard the Lionheart, and King Arthur that engendered in me a lasting love for and fascination with Great Britain. I've visited the mother island on more than a dozen occasions; I long to be there now. Simon Winchester's OUTPOSTS took me in a different direction - outward to the last vestiges of Empire.

British Indian Ocean Territory, Tristan da Cunha, Gibraltar, Ascension Island, St. Helena, Hong Kong, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, and the Pitcairn Islands. These, minus Hong Kong - OUTPOSTS was published in 1985 - are now all that are left of the once proud imperial possessions. Simon visited them over a three year period, except the inaccessible Pitcairn, and tells us about his odyssey in this sterling travel narrative.

Winchester, a Brit himself, is ambiguous about the Empire. On one hand, he apparently feels that the Crown's dominions, protectorates, trustee states, mandated territories and colonies were better left to go their separate ways, if only for the sake of political correctness. On the other hand, he maintains that, of all the European colonial empires, Britain's was the one administered with the greatest degree of good intentions. And, Simon isn't above becoming sentimental, as on Tristan da Cunha, a dependency of St. Helena, during a visit by the Colonial Governor:

"A bugle was blown, a banner was raised, a salute was made, an anthem was played - and the Colonial Governor of St. Helena was formally welcomed on to the tiniest and loneliest dependency in the remanent British Empire. I found I was watching it through a strange golden haze, which cleared if I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand: the children looked so proud, so eager to please, so keen to touch the hand from England, from the wellspring of their official existence."

The volume contains a rudimentary map of each colony visited, but no photographs - a deplorable deficiency in any travel essay, I think. I had to go onto the Web to satisfy my curiosity for visuals; the Tristan de Cunha, St.Helena, and Falkland Islands websites are particularly helpful in this regard.

OUTPOSTS is, of course, dated; Hong Kong has long since reverted to the mandarins in Peking. Luckily, I was able to visit the place in 1994 when it was still a jewel in the British crown. Oddly, the chapter on HK is surprisingly short considering the size and importance of the place at the time the book was written. Winchester didn't even mention one of the best E-rides in the world, the short Star Ferry trip from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.

One of the best reasons to read OUTPOSTS, if your interested in the subject, is the author's brief, chatty history of each colony. And then there's the occasional trivia. Did you know, for example, that during the Falkland Islands War a team of Argentine frogman arrived in Spain with plans to blow up Royal Navy ships anchored off Gibraltar? They were arrested by the Spanish police on a tip from British Intelligence. And, do you know the location of the only land border between Holland and France? It's not where you might think.

OUTPOSTS grandly took me to places I shall likely never visit, and I'm indebted to Winchester for that.

Having visited some of the far-flung places mentioned in Outposts, I was really floored by Winchester's style and prose: he really brings these remote islands alive, and tells a very readable, factual yet humorous tale of the inhabitants of Britain's remaining colonies, their lives and the daily issues they face.

Brilliantly written and extremely captivating, even those without an apparent interest in the subject would be moved by this book. I think it would at least further their curiosity in these remote patriots and their daily trials on such remote outcrops.

Harry Ritchie writes on a similar line in his book The Last Pink Bits, yet his research is noticeably less than Winchester's, by far. His tone at the start even appears one of mild annoyance at having to travel the world on the subject (surely his own idea?!) to the extent that I actually wondered why he bothered. New-found UK celebrity Ben Fogle also attempts a work entitled The Teatime Islands, and although a brave attempt at starting his writing career, I think he should stick to presenting daytime television.

Outposts is an extremely well-leafed book in my collection, which I keep revisiting. I cannot recommend it highly enough for those interested in travel, days of empire and island life.

A humorous account of the author's travels circa 1983 to the remaining possessions of the British Empire, almost all of which are isolated islands. Several of the tiffs with British bureaucrats read like episodes of British sitcoms. My only complaint is that the bibliography at the end was not updated for the re-issue and is composed entirely of books which are more than 20 years old.

A humorous account of the author's travels circa 1983 to the remaining possessions of the British Empire, almost all of which are isolated islands. Several of the tiffs with British bureaucrats read like episodes of British sitcoms. My only complaint is that the bibliography at the end was not updated for the re-issue and is composed entirely of books which are more than 20 years old.

I can live with the chapters that are outdated; I mean, Winchester wrote this two decades ago, the 'first published' date tells you this. I see no need for him to have to update anything. It's a travel book from the early 1980's.

What did annoy me though was Winchester's constant and, one must assume, deliberate ploy of interchanging the words English/ England with British/ Britain, as if they meant the same thing.

Whether Winchester liked it or not (and I'm sure he probably didn't) the Empire was British; England may well have been in control but the constant interchange often found in the same paragraph is a real kick in the teeth to the hundreds and thousands of Welsh and Scots that helped form the fledgling Empire.

The book cover has the Union Flag on it. It's there for a reason.

I thought I was buying a recently written book, and was very disappointed to see this is a 1985 book I had read years ago, with a new cover and a new introduction. For this reason, I have given it only one star.

That being said, the 1985 book was a fascinating travelogue for its era. Simon Winchester visited all of the remaining territories of Great Britain, many of them obscure places such as Tristan da Cunha in the Atlantic and Boddam in the Indian Ocean, populated by people who have been more-or-less forgotten by the British government. The best chapter is on the Falklands, where the author arrived a few days before the Argentine invasion. The author's description of pre-invasion Falklands was particularly evocative, as he describes a society stuck in a 1950s time-warp where the work ethic had been lost.

Winchester makes a number of cogent points about the governance of these places. He points out that the people in France's territories directly elect members to the French legislature, yet the people of Britain's territories have no representation whatsoever, even though they are generally staunch monarchists. Also, the author emphasizes how unfair it is that people in predominantly white territories have the right to move to Britain, but those in non-white territories such as St. Helena are not permitted to move to Britain. (Apparently some reforms have occurred since the book was written in 1985.)

It would be fascinating if Simon Winchester retraced his 1985 itinerary and described how these places have changed in the last 20 years. That is the book that should have been written.

Simon Winchester writes about his journeys to most of Britain's remaining overseas colonies, from Gibraltar to the Falklands to the military-dominated British Indian Ocean Territory.

The early chapters (his experiences being forced to journey from Spain to Gibraltar by way of Tangier, his attempted invasion of Diego Garcia in the B.I.O.T, his journey to Tristan da Cunha) are clearly the best. As for the Falklands chapter, it is interesting because he was on the islands at the time of the Argentine invasion, and I wish he had written some more about that. He also treks to Bermuda, St. Helena, Ascension, the Caymans, the Turks and Caicos, and the B.V.I., and makes them live for us, as well as Hong Kong.

Why Hong Kong? Wasn't that given back to China? Yes, in 1997, but these journeys by Mr. Winchester took place in the early 1980's. They are all rather interesting, but I would have hoped for an update in the new edition of this book (as well as a chapter on Pitcairn Island, which he had not been able to reach by the time Outposts was originally published, but subsequently reached). Instead, what we get is a new introduction, which does tell us of his exile from Tristan da Cunha (he isn't permitted to land there due to islanders' resentment over what he wrote) and brief updates on some of the other islands (such as the St. Helena islanders' successful quest for full British citizenship).

Recommended, but with the 20-plus years, getting a bit dated. Could use a good rewrite and updating.

The blurb on the cover from the New York Times Book Review says: "Funny, masterly, fine... Superbly written." Like all the other books by Winchester which I have read, this is superbly written, but funny it is not. I'm not sure what the reviewer defines as funny, but after reading travelogues by Bill Bryson and Peter Mayle (which have their share of funny moments) this is a much more scholarly tome. Some of these outposts are in the middle of nowhere and you wonder how people live.

I think the chapter I most enjoyed was Gibraltar - only because I know all about the roundabout trip British citizens have to make from getting from Spain to The Rock. (Okay - maybe that was the funny section.) My second favourite section was the Falklands (or should I say Malvinas?) -- I vaguely remember the war and it was nice to get a history lesson from this book. I'm sure my friends in the UK know more about this conflict that I do - but I don't remember a lot of news coverage here in the USA. (Granted, it's 20 years ago, but still - if it's not affecting the USA, the news kind of just skates over it quickly, if it's mentioned at all.)

It's fine writing, makes you think about places that you might never otherwise heard of, but at times it's dull and reads more like a history text than a travelogue.

If you like history and travel literature, then this is the book for you.
Simon Winchester travels to some of the smallest and most obscure places on the earth, and gives fresh insight other more well known places such as Hong Kong.

And you will learn some really interesting stuff, like that there are some islands (well rocks in the pacific really), that are classified by the British government as Navel ships, and are named as such.

You will definately want to grab an atlas after reading this.

well.... as usual.... winchester's style of writing is exciting and enthralling... outposts focuses on the remaining British outposts... remenants of the British Empire... the author brings us on a journey to these remote places and vividly describes geographic, cultural and a bit of history of these outposts.... it was an enjoyable and memorable read.... if you're interested in history, geography and remote islands then i believe you will find this book interesting!!!

If you are interested in British colonies as they are today, now known as Overseas Territories or Dependencies, there is no better book than Outposts. I bought this while in Bermuda for beachreading, and blasted through it in 2 days. Winchester gives you a feel for the lives of the islanders, and just how much influence the British government has left over the way they govern and police themselves. Some of the "forgotten lands" he visited and discusses include St. Helena (of Napoleon fame), Tristan de Cunha (between Africa and South America), Diego Garcia (Indian Ocean), Gibraltar, Bermuda and all of the British West Indies. Humorous, insightful - just a great way to see and feel what remains of the Empire without actually going there if you can't afford it.