Book review: Crusoe's Island by Andrew Lambert

The sight of a dust jacket in blue with a compass and a sea chart, and a sub-title promising ‘Pirates, Castaways and Madness’ raises hopes of an entertaining account of adventures on the high seas.

But this is serious naval history, unfortunately intertwined with tired old theories about the importance of the island and the castaway, in particular Robinson Crusoe, to British cultural identity.

But Crusoe as the original coloniser and Friday as the colonised has long been recognised: James Joyce discussed this in a 1911 lecture. Lambert is sound on naval history, but should leave the cultural stuff to those who know their literature.