A portrait of Lord Admiral Jack Fisher, the commander of the British Navy at the turn of the century, examines his pivotal roles as a statesman, devout church-goer, lady's man, and leader. 15,000 first printing.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
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.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
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
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unclassifiable book on a unique genius!,
This review is from: Fisher's Face; or,: Getting to Know the Admiral (Hardcover)
This book is a delight. It does not fit easily into the categories of history, biography or psychology, and yet it has elements of all of them. The author has obviously written it for sheer personal pleasure and this sense of fun - of which the splendid Jacky Fisher himself would have thoroughly approved - is communicated to the reader. It is no fault of the writer that Fisher remains an enigma at the end of it, a man of vast contradictions, enthusiasms, energy, genius and simplicity, but the journey is enjoyable on every page. Fisher was a force of nature who tackled every challenge, regardless of size, with zest, verve and originality and the story of his whirlwind career, and his transformation of the Royal Navy has much of the epic about it. Few men can have had greater vision, or a greater gift for grasping the potential of technology for transforming organisations and national destinies. Much of what he did and said could serve as a textbook for today's business schools - while the rest might have marked him for a straitjacket. For all his greatness however, he was diminished by his last years and by Churchill's disastrous decision to recall him to the Admiralty soon after the outbreak of the First World War. Old, and by now unstable, his tenure was marked by huge miscalculations and personal behaviour that swung erratically between the inspired and the lunatic. Those who enjoy this unique book will be no less delighted by Fisher's idiosyncratic memoirs - entitled "Memories" - which are an eccentric and haphazard collection of ideas, reminiscences and dictums (slogans might be a better word). This is long out of print, but well worth the seeking.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun and Fascinating - Truly a Great Read!,
By Helveticus (Arosa, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fisher's Face; or,: Getting to Know the Admiral (Hardcover)
I'm reading this book for the second time now and its every bit as fresh as during the first go round. Morris brings history alive as few others and has chosen a wonderfully exciting subject to biography. God, how we need more leaders like Jacky Fisher these days! And more writers like Morris. Well done, I'm searching the back list for your other titles.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Well, what do 'ya think of our Jacky now ?",
By A Customer
This review is from: Fisher's Face; or,: Getting to Know the Admiral (Hardcover)
For those of us who are thoroughly rapt with the Royal Navy; following Mr. Massies "Dreadnought", Mr. Manchesters volumes on Churchill, and Winstons volumes on himself; this book will make your day. Jan Morris via the wonders of surgery can take magnificently opposite points of view. In the same paragraph she/he can be the disgruntled fellow officer and a breath later the wife of that same affronted officer, enraptured by the demon Admiral Fisher; who has just put her husband down. Fisher was a man who would destroy many a career without compunction , but in such a way that the victims would name their first male child after him. Go figure. Winston-O-Files will find little here but two characters so similar, so individual, and so revolutionary, that they could have been twins. Ms. Morris writes this book in the second person taking us into Admiral Fishers quarters on board the "Renown" and letting the effusive and entertaining and somewhat comedic Admiral lead us on a tour of his life. Morris is clearly in love with Jacky and through attention and sensitivity writes a gripping and compassionate biography. Wedge this book in next to your Manchester and Churchill and, oh'ya, your James Morris
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