A World Without Heroes

BACKBLIP ALERT...

A few years ago there was a tv prog about the greatest Briton to have lived or something like that.

This man would have been my nomination.. Sir Richard Francis Burton. A man much misunderstood nowadays, and labelled with unfortunate titles and silly 21st century tags.

A man who by the time he was 20 could speak almost all european languages, then learnt eastern and far eastern tongues, a man who served as a spy for the British Army, a man who ventured into harar and Mecca when it was death to any 'white man' who entered there.

A man who explored the source of the Nile, who travelled to Utah , an explorer, a raconteur, and a rogue...

who also wrote and published a breadth of work more fitting to five men than one...

a man who lived his life, and lived it well to the moment he died in Trieste in his 69th year....

i feel this brief summation, like all the rest of the things written about Burton, will never do him justice or recognise what a truly unique individual he was.


Kiss