#55 Neil Hanson on the Mignonette & Everything Else
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2017
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
Neil Hanson is one of the most interesting people we know. He's written books on World War I, the Spanish Armada, and the fire that destroyed London in 1666. He once teamed up with history's greatest treasure hunter to tell the story of retrieving over $100 million in gold from a sunken Soviet ship in the arctic. He's been the owner of the highest Inn in all of Great Britain. And, in 1999 he published a book called The Custom of the Sea, which tells the story of a shipwrecked crew that was put on trial in London after resorting to cannibalism. The ship, which fell victim to forty-foot waves off the coast of Africa in 1884, was named the Mignonette, and Hanson's book was so good that in 2004 it inspired an album by an up-and-coming group of musicians called The Avett Brothers.
How could someone turn a gruesome tale of cannibalism into an inspirational work of history? How do you track down the sources that allow you to answer so many questions about history? And how does one individual accomplish so much in one life? In this episode of The Road to Now, we get the answers in our conversation with Neil Hanson.
Find out more about this episode of The Road to Now at our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ramser Records David Chilters reteams with producer Don Dixon for Run Skeleton Run coming May 5th. |
| 0:12.0 | The lauded North Carolina singer-songwriter's latest effort features vocals and banjo contributions by Scott Avid of the Avid Brothers. |
| 0:19.0 | Get your copy of David Childer's Run Skelton Run on May 5th at ramsar Records.com. |
| 0:39.6 | How many lives can one man live? |
| 0:44.1 | As a writer, Neil Hansen has pushed conventional wisdom to its limits. |
| 0:47.6 | Through his books, he's carried us along with the Spanish Armada. |
| 0:51.1 | He's ran with treasure hunters, explorers, soldiers, and sailors. |
| 0:52.6 | He's written beer guides. |
| 0:54.9 | And for a time, was the owner of the highest pub in Britain. As a member of the band the AVet Brothers, I was introduced to Hansen's work |
| 1:00.0 | in 2003, while Scott Avitt was reading Hansen's 1999 release, The Custom of the Sea. |
| 1:07.5 | The book tells the tale of a doomed 19th century yacht, and its stalwart and forthright captain Thomas Dudley. |
| 1:13.6 | After the vessel sank in a monstrous storm off the coast of West Africa, its crew clung to life on a 13-foot dinghy. |
| 1:20.6 | What happened in the 19 days they were lost at sea became the talk of London, and even caught the attention of Queen Victoria herself. |
| 1:28.5 | This tale of perseverance and morality inspired our 2004 album, |
| 1:33.0 | which borrowed its name from Captain Dudley's ship, The Minionette. |
| 1:37.1 | Last summer I had the pleasure of finally meeting, Neil Hanson. |
| 1:40.3 | We sat down in the boisterous lounge of West London's famed K-West Hotel. |
| 1:44.5 | Ben joined us via Skype as we discussed how an honest enthusiasm and curiosity for life will take you everywhere. |
| 1:58.2 | You know, here at the road to now, our premise is that the personal narrative somehow fits into |
| 2:04.4 | the larger historical narrative. Tell us a little bit about your upbringing and how you |
| 2:09.9 | came to writing and how you decided to make a life out of it. It's funny, I've had a, you know, |
| 2:15.6 | you couldn't even call it a career. I've had a really |
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