TREVOR FISHLOCK

Conquerors of Time celebrates 150 years of courage, energy, innovation, resourcefulness and grand ideas, from the late 17th century to the early 20th. Its about the seafarers, engineers, inventors and trailblazers who enabled the British to hold together a vast empire and the Americans to push their frontiers west.Some, such as Captain Cook and Robert Stephenson are famous. Others, like the makers of chromonometers, the collectors of tropical plants or the railway engineers who roughed it in the Canadian wilderness are less well-known. What they all had in common is a desire to understand the world and a determination to harness the forces of nature. Trevor Fishlocks brio and broad vision matches those of his subjects and makes for a rattling good read. Lawrence James, Daily MailFact-filled and highly evocative ... the sheer romance of the story is irresistible.Sunday Telegraph