by Rufus Monkey

Created on: December 15, 2006   Last Updated: September 14, 2009

A Sense of the World

Written by Jason Roberts

To take the road less travelled demands a certain mix of derring-do and unwavering persistence. To take the road less traveled literally and figuratively while blind and crippled involves something else. With cane in hand James Holman: climbed the erupting Mt Vesuvius, fought slave traders in the Atlantic, hunted renegade Sri Lankan Elephants, negotiated Brazilian rainforests, wrote poetry in China, toured the Siberian tundra, rode a horse through the New South Wales bush, and helped found a coastal African colony. Clocking over 400 000 thousand kilometres in the 19 th century, no continent escaped his haptic scrutiny. Quite the overachiever, Holman was both a lieutenant of the British Navy and a Naval Knight of Windsor. He studied literature and medicine at the University of Edinburgh, wrote best selling books, and is credited with inspiring the travels of Charles Darwin and Sir Richard Francis Burton. To top it off - James was a hit with the ladies. Opportunely saved from the shrouds of history, this biographical account is a charming read. It remains intelligent, informative and inspiring despite the sometimes cloying hero worship the author pushes onto Holman. With particularly profound insights into the world of the sightless, Roberts doesn't stop short of addressing his 20/20 modern day counterparts either, 'There will never be another James Holman. But there will always be people who must summon the courage to plunge, wholeheartedly in a world complex beyond our illusions of comprehension.' An absorbing work.

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