Anthony Dalton

The adventures of Tinker Taylor started in rural Scotland before he was three years old. They continued throughout his formative years in England until he set off on a round-about odyssey for Timbuktu in his late teens. On his long journey he introduces us to Alexander the Great, Marc Antony, a host of ancient Persian kings, a trio of Sahara explorers, and he dallies with exotic beauties such as Aphrodite, Cleopatra and Queen Tin Hinan. Tinker's travels through the ruins of antiquity bring him in contact with an eclectic mix of modern personalities, including: a talkative Turk, Pete - an Iraqi with a Cockney accent, Brandy - the passionate American, two Italian mountain climbers, and a suspected British spy. Plus, we meet an African crook named Agha Khan, the overpowering Chantal, a nomad called Mahmoud, and Fred - a bad-tempered camel.All these set against a backdrop of archaeological treasures: Pella, Ephesus, Persepolis, Palmyra, Ba'albek, the Pyramids of Gizeh, Abalessa, Timgad and the fabled Timbuktu.

High in the Tien Shan mountain range overlooking the vast Takla Makan desert, a team of climbers reach the 'Death Zone' where survival is a lottery run by fate. Ray and Sarah scale the heights until tragedy overtakes them. Two decades later Julie proves she is a climber in the same class as her mother. The love between a man and a woman travels from the Rocky Mountains to the Tien Shans on the Chinese border and beyond to the Himalayas.

The eternal triangle with a twist. A Man, a woman and an albatross. Set on the rugged coastline of north-west Scotland, this novella tells of the passion two people hold for each other and for a giant wild bird. Tripp, Amanda and Albert, bound together by loneliness and curiosity. A love story with a surprise ending on a far-away island.

Travel the world for free (or nearly) as a guest speaker on cruise ships. All you need to know to get started is in this little book.

Following the ignominious end of the Dalton gang during their failed raid on two banks in Coffeeville, Kansas, in October 1892, there were many rumors of a sixth gang member at the scene. Despite exhaustive research, no historian has successfully proved the existence of, or the name of that person. In this story of the years leading up to theraid and its aftermath, Flo Quick tells her version of the events and puts forward a convincing tale. A lawman of the time described Flo Quick as "one hell-fire of a she-cat." Indeed she was, and she had a raunchy sense of humor to boot.

From the era of wooden sailing ships and Europe's golden age of exploration, the story of famed British navigator Henry Hudson tells a classic tale of courage, ambition, and treachery on the high seas. As the leader of four Arctic voyages in 1607, 1608, 1609, and 1610, Hudson searched in vain for a navigable route through the polar ice that would open the way to the riches of Asia. In his obsession to succeed, he made reckless decisions that pushed his crew to the brink, with disastrous results. Hudson did not achieve his goal, but as a result of his skillful mapping of Hudson Bay and the Hudson River area, his name would live on as a prominent landmark in the geography and imagination of North America.

After Royal Navy captain Sir John Franklin disappeared in the Arctic in 1846 while seeking the Northwest Passage, the search for his two ships, 'Erebus' and 'Terror', and survivors of his expedition became one of the most exhaustive quests of the 19th century. Despite tantalising clues, the ships were never found, and the fate of Franklins expedition passed into legend as one of the Norths great and enduring mysteries. Anthony Dalton explores the eventful and fascinating life of this complex and intelligent man, beginning with his early sea voyages and arduous overland explorations in the Arctic. After years in Malta and Tasmania, Franklin realised his dream of returning to the Far North; it would be his last expedition. Drawing from evidence found by 19th-century Arctic explorers following in Franklins footsteps and investigations by 20th-century historians and archaeologists, Dalton retraces the route of the lost ships and recounts the sad tale of Franklin, his officers and men in their final agonising months.

Anson Northup, the first steamboat on the Canadian prairies, arrived in Fort Garry in 1859. Belching hot sparks and growling in fury, it was called "fire canoe" by the local Cree. The first steam-powered passenger vessel in Canada had begun service on the St. Lawrence River in 1809, and for the next 150 years, steamboats carried passengers and freight on great Canadian rivers, among them the treacherous Stikine and Fraser in British Columbia; the Saskatchewan and Red Rivers on the prairies; and the mighty St. Lawrence and Saguenay in Ontario and Quebec. Travel back in time aboard makeshift gold-rush riverboats on the Yukon, sternwheelers on the Saskatchewan and luxurious liners on the St. Lawrence to the decades when steamboats sent the echoes of whistles across a vast land of powerful rivers.

In mid-July 1925, the SS Bayeskimo ran into heavy drift ice at the entrance to Hudson Strait. The ice carried her north, squeezing the steamer and testing the strength of her rivets. Helpless until the tide changed and the ice moved, the officers and crew could only watch and listen to the ship's tormented groans. Slowly at first, trickles of freezing water seeped through the steel plates on her bow. The trickles became a flood, and Bayeskimo began to sink. Bayeskimo was one of hundreds of ships in the Hudson's Bay Company's fur-trade fleet. For much of the company's history, they roamed Hudson Bay, the sub-arctic and beyond the Arctic Circle, servicing far-flung posts. Some even battled their way around the tip of South America to open up trade on the west coast of North America. During these arduous voyages, many of them came to grief under conditions that would test the mettle of any ship. Here are some of their dramatic stories.

Dewey Soper first travelled to the Arctic in 1923. During the next seven years he accepted three research postings on Baffin Island, each of which lasted between one and two years. In 1929 he discovered the breeding grounds of the blue goose in the southwest corner of Baffin Island. He also charted the final unknown region of Baffin Island’s coastline. Later in life he worked in the western Arctic. Outside the Far North, Soper studied bison in Wood Buffalo National Park, documented bird life on the Prairies, and made a detailed study of small mammals in Alberta. Soper was the last of the great pioneer naturalists in Canada. He was also a skilled and meticulous explorer. As a naturalist, he was a major contributor to the National Museum of Canada, as well as to the University of Alberta and other museums across the country.

Around the Arctic Circle, polar bears are at the top of the food chain. They have no natural enemies and are fearless, living on the ice and hunting seals--their favourite food--with matchless cunning and ability. They roam far and wide, often far south of their Arctic habitat: they are seen regularly in Churchill, Manitoba, and in James Bay. They rarely attack humans, but when they do, they win. Considered wise and powerful by Aboriginal cultures, they have become a symbol of animals threatened by climate change in the Arctic ecosystem. Anthony Dalton has gathered stories of Ursus maritimus from Canada, Greenland, Norway, Siberia and Alaska. Learn about the bears' single-minded approach to life and acquiring food, share hair-raising encounters between polar bears and humans, and marvel at the majesty of this mighty animal.

In September 1923, 14 US Navy destroyers raced into a channel off California's coast in darkness and thick fog. Minutes later seven of the ships crashed into jagged rocks, and 23 sailors died that night. Only five years before, a Canadian passenger ship steamed blind down Alaska's Lynn Canal in a late-night snowstorm, en route from Skagway to Vancouver. She ran up on Vanderbilt Reef, slid off the reef and sank, taking more than 350 people to their deaths. The west coast of North America has some of the world's most beautiful scenery along its thousands of miles of bays, coves and forbidding cliffs, but it's often subjected to ferocious storms. Here are stories of ships that met tragic ends - including Brother Jonathan, Princess Sophia, Benevolence, Star of Bengal, City of Rio de Janeiro and Columbia - and the passengers and crews who found themselves in extreme danger on this coastline.