The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shifting Winds, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: Shifting Winds
A Tough Yarn

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Release Date: June 6, 2007 [EBook #21702]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHIFTING WINDS ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Shifting Winds, by R.M. Ballantyne

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As so often with Ballantyne's books there are really several tales all
told in parallel in this book. There is the story of the seaman Gaff
and his son Billy, there is the story of Mrs Gaff, there is Haco
Barepoles, there is Captain Bingley and his son Gildart, there is the
Stuart family. All these characters are very well drawn, and their
lives merge together and move apart to a surprising degree. With a
fundamentally Christian message, this book also depicts the work of the
Shipwrecked Mariners and Fishermen Institution. Although there are
incidents at sea, most of the action takes place in the small fishing
village of Wreckumoft, and the town of Athenbury. One of the great
values of Ballantyne's books is the insight he gives into life in
Britain in the nineteenth century, not just the day-to-day lives of the
actors, but the motives that propel them, and the upbringing that these
actors had. We are, however, mystified by the title, which made one
think that the book might be something to do with ballooning!

Robert Michael Ballantyne was born in 1825 and died in 1894. He was
educated at the Edinburgh Academy, and in 1841 he became a clerk with
the Hudson Bay Company, working at the Red River Settlement in Northen
Canada until 1847, arriving back in Edinburgh in 1848. The letters he
had written home were very amusing in their description of backwoods
life, and his family publishing connections suggested that he should
construct a book based on these letters. Three of his most enduring
books were written over the next decade, "The Young Fur Traders",
"Ungava", "The Hudson Bay Company", and were based on his experiences
with the HBC. In this period he also wrote "The Coral island" and
"Martin Rattler"