Fisher's Face; or,: Getting to Know the Admiral - Hardcover

Morris, Jan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679416099 ISBN 13: 9780679416098

Publisher: Random House, 1995

Synopsis

A portrait of Lord Admiral Jack Fisher, commander of the British Navy at the turn of the century, examines his roles as a statesman, devout church-goer, lady's man, and leader

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Reviews

Flamboyant, swaggering Lord Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher (1841-1920), commander of the Royal Navy, transformed a complacent instrument of the British Empire into a modern fleet whose blockade strangled Germany and helped the Allies win WWI. In British writer Morris's (Conundrum) witty, engaging biography, Fisher emerges as a man of contradictions. Born in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to a British coffee planter and sent at age six to live with a grandfather in England, Fisher, who despised class differences, democratically overhauled a navy that drew its officers overwhelmingly from the gentry. Deeply religious, cosmopolitan, father of submarine warfare and a close friend of Churchill, Fisher was made a baron, grew bored with his wife and left her to live with Duchess Nina Hamilton. Some historians have charged that Fisher's preemptive-strike policy made war more likely; others blame him for the Allies' disastrous Gallipoli landing in 1915. But, in Morris's seaworthy biography, he is a hero who dragged the Royal Navy out of the 18th century into the 20th. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

As silent-film star Norma Desmond avers in the 1950 movie classic Sunset Boulevard, she and others of her ilk may not have had the use of words, but they had faces! Indeed, the face of British admiral John Fisher, in a photograph tacked to her closet door for 40 years, has haunted esteemed British travel writer Jan Morris all these many years. She's now completed the biography of "Jacky" Fisher she's been planning since 1951, when she first came across his fascinating visage. And what a remarkably insightful, gorgeously presented book it is. To Morris, Fisher's face is both distinctive and enigmatic, capstone of a complex and contradictory personality. Morris is obviously moved by her subject, and her excitement infects the reader. She treats Fisher like a lover, accepting his faults and thrilling over his attributes. She encourages us to realize he was full of himself, but at the same time insists we have no doubt that as head of the British navy, he instituted reforms that left it a modern instrument of war. Morris searches out and delights in, even savors, all corners of Fisher's commodious personality; we come away fascinated by him, too, and once again reminded of Morris' own intelligence and warmth of personality, which she can't help but invest in every page of her writing. Brad Hooper

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679416099
• ISBN 13: 9780679416098
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300