500 years have now passed since Ferdinand Magellan’s famous voyage, the most audacious in maritime history. In his new book East by West, Allen Mawer closely examines the historical sources, charts and eyewitness records, considering afresh what we know of Magellan and the details of his voyage.

Allen Mawer is an author and historian who has written many well-received books on Canberra, Australian folklore, whaling and exploration. His best-known works in these genres are, respectively, Canberry Tales, Wild Colonial Boys, Ahab’s Trade: The Saga of South Seas Whaling and Incognita: The Invention and Discovery of Terra Australis. Allen is the President of the Canberra & District Historical Society and in a former life was a Senior Executive Service officer in the Australian Public Service.

In conversation with Allen will be Dr Martin Woods, current President of the Australian and New Zealand Map Society, and Curator of Maps at the National Library from 2005-2018. Martin is a published author with credits including the books Australia in Maps, Great Maps in Australia’s History (as editor), and Where are our boys: how Newsmaps won the Great War.

This event will be held in the Library Theatre and live-streamed via Zoom. The Zoom link will be emailed one week prior to the event, with a reminder sent the day prior.

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Read more about the book East by West: The New Navigation of Ferdinand Magellan