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Alethea Hayter
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Wreck of the Abergavenny Paperback – 4 July 2003

by Alethea Hayter (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 7 ratings
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In February 1805 the Earl of Abergavenny set sail in convoy from Portsmouth for a voyage to India and China, captained by John Wordsworth, the younger brother of the poet William Wordsworth. On board were more than 400 passengers and crew. Only three days later, separated from the convoy by stormy weather, the ship struck the notorious Shamble shoal in Weymouth bay and sank, drowning 260 souls including her Captain.

From the harrowing accounts of the survivors and the detailed official and press reports if the disaster, The Wreck of the Abergavenny brilliant recreates this tragic event and its impact on John's brother William and his friends Coleridge, Charles and Mary Lamb, and many others. Dramatic, haunting and engaging The Wreck of the Abergavenny is an intimate and beautifully observed view of a family and the effects of tragedy. It is a masterpiece of narrative non-fiction.

'Hayter gives us intellectual as well as emotional excitement. . .beautifully crafted and a pleasure to read' Sunday Times

'Hayter's marvellous book is.a jewel of popular history writing' Kathryn Hughes, Literary Review

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  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pan Books
  4. Publication date
    4 July 2003
  5. Dimensions
    13.34 x 1.91 x 19.69 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0330491458
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0330491457
  8. See all details
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Product description

Review

...pays attention to the smallest detail... is unafraid to ask the big questions. -- Sophie Ratcliffe in Times Play, September 2003

Wrought with exceptional intelligence, compassion and clarity, her book is a succinct masterpiece... -- Lisa Gee in Daily Telegraph, September 2003

About the Author

Alethea Hayter, who died at the age of 94 in January 2006, wrote books of immaculate scholarship and intense readability that for many years never had the size of readership they deserved. For a quarter of a century, she was also an excellent cultural ambassador with the British Council. Her first book, on the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, appeared in 1962, and the following decade saw the publication of her most important works, notably A Sultry Month which chronicles events that occurred in London between June 18 and July 13 1846 in the lives of a number of individuals linked by friendship and by chance, notably the artist Benjamin Haydon, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. Her last book, The Wreck of the Abergavenny, was published by Macmillan in 2003.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pan Books; 1st Pan Book Edition (4 July 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0330491458
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0330491457
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.34 x 1.91 x 19.69 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 7 ratings

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Alethea Hayter

Alethea Hayter

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Fitz
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great bargain in first rate condition
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 March 2021
    Verified Purchase
    The book arrived rapidly , in as new condition and timely enough to fit with my research schedule .
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  • Chris H
    4.0 out of 5 stars The Wreck in Another Guise?
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 December 2010
    This incisive volume is fascinating, and makes one want to seek out William Falconer's 3000-line poem The Shipwreck which, published in 1761, was popular in its time, and based on experience. It was quoted on the title-page of a small contemporary book about this wreck.

    Talking of Falconer, Alethea Hayter does not mention his namesake John Meade Falkner. The Abergavenny wreck was the talk of this area around Weymouth through the nineteenth century, and could well have had an influence upon his classic novel Moonfleet.
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  • Withnail67
    5.0 out of 5 stars Touching account of literary grief and maritime heroism.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 December 2003
    This is a gem of a book, with Hayter building on her reputation as an outstanding scholar of English Romanticism. She combines this with the terrifying details of the loss of the East Indiaman Earl of Abergavenny, which in itself would be a fascinating read. She reconciles accounts, explores the nature of the vessel and its cargo, and above all humanises its crew who emerge as real individuals.
    But the captain of the ship was John Wordsworth, beloved brother of the poet William Wordsworth, and Hayters account of how powerful grief struck the closely knit literary circle in Grasmere is all the more keenly felt as she traces the resonances of grief through Dorothy and William's letters and poems.
    Wordsworth regarded his sensitive brother as a 'natural poet', and his courageous death retains it power to move. Reading of these people coping with the impact of unexpected and violent death has much to offer our own time.
    5 people found this helpful
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