#224 Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1957)

Author: L.T.C. Rolt
Title: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Genre: Biography
Year: 1957
Pages: 430
Origin: bought from a second-hand bookshop
Nod Rating: 3 nods out of 5
 

 

In 2002, the BBC conducted a public poll in the hope of piecing together a collection of the 100 Greatest Britons. The list was populated with the usual suspects: Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth (and somewhat annoyingly, Princess Diana). But one name reached a height that surprised all: Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

 
Depending on your location in this fair country of ours (the United Kingdom, that is), Brunel’s name holds a particular attraction. In the westcountry and south of England he is widely seen as the father of the railway and the man who brought transport to the masses through his fine aequducts and famous bridges. He is highly thought of as a true engineering genius who was always stretching for more and better; his name being synonymous with the success of the Victorian age and its engineering magnificence. Who better, one could say, then a biographer who knows a thing or two about engineering. Step forward, L.T.C. Rolt.

Hailed by R.A. Buchanan as ‘the outstanding popular historian of engineering history and biography in the twentieth century’, Rolt completed several biographies on some of rails biggest names (including the big duo of George and Robert Stephenson). The Worm was lucky enough to pick up a cheap copy of a later edition of this book; one that – somewhat charmingly and honestly - kept the inaccuracies of the original edition (as well as Rolt’s erroneous blaming of others for some of Brunel’s mistakes). The book is divided into three sections: the birth and early years of Brunel’s career; his work on the railways and growth of the Great Western Railway company; the outline of his other exploits, including the building of the large ships the Great Western, Briton and Great Eastern. Detail is expanded on in some of Brunel’s notable achievements, as well as his engineering ability: including the Gauge war and his atmospheric experiments on rail.

It is clear that Rolt knows his stuff – the book is packed with engineering know-how. Luckily for the Worm (and other non-engineer enthusiasts) the author knows how to keep things simple and avoid tedious long pieces of dull information. Furthermore, Rolt knows how to string a sentence or two. For example, take his description of Brunel’s tragic viewing of the Royal Albert Bridge at the end of his life:

 

‘on a specially prepared platform truck, while one of Gooch’s locomotives drew him very slowly beneath the pier arches and over the great girders. For his railway career was ended. Broken by the last and most ambitious of all his schemes – his great ship – Brunel was dying… the engineer still blazed with defiant, unquenchable courage'.

 And here we have his writing on the mayhem that was the construction of the Thames Tunnel:

'And what an amazing drama it was, this stubborn struggle between man and earth which went on relentlessly, month after month, year after year in the darkness under the Thames. Always dramatic, and sometimes tragic, upon one occasion it became sheer fantasy’.

However, much of this effect is spoilt by Rolt’s continuing deference and fawning over Brunel throughout the entirety of the book. Rather than take the stance of critical biographer, Rolt plays the role of Head of the Brunel Fan-club. The faults of some of Brunel’s works (rail and boat) is not on the head of the engineer, but on the heads of others; with biased utterances found within each chapter. In places Rolt’s dramatic touches excite him to fever pitch; Brunel, he states with ‘no exaggeration’ was the ‘last great figure of the European Renaissance.’

But, the Worm is ready to forgive such an uncritical piece of work, such is the author’s clear enthusiasm for all things Brunel. Rolt’s sentimentality is shown in his – somewhat naïve words – about today’s biographies: ‘It has become fashionable nowadays not to praise famous men but to belittle them.’ Furthermore, his research is wide-reaching, taking in contemporary sources, family papers, and Brunel’s notebooks (some of which are no longer available for future biographers). As such, Rolt’s piece of work is one of considerable worth, despite its defects.

It is clear that Brunel lived a fantastic life, even if he did die at a relatively young age. The book’s cover notes this work as ‘the definitive biography of the engineer, visionary and great Briton.’ Engineer, visionary and great Briton, he undoubtedly was; but the claim of definitive biography is one that does not hold up.

Buy it here