author
Marquis of Frederick Temple Blackwood Dufferin and Ava
1826–1902
A celebrated Victorian statesman and traveler, he turned sharp observation and social charm into a career that reached from Canada to India. His writing captures both the curiosity of a traveler and the confidence of a man at the center of empire.
2 Audiobooks
Yachting, Vol. 2
by R. T. (Robert Taylor) Pritchett, G. L. Blake, Marquis of Frederick Temple Blackwood Dufferin and Ava, James McFerran, T. B. Middleton
Letters from High Latitudes Being Some Account of a Voyage in 1856 of the Schooner Yacht "Foam" to Iceland, Jan Meyen, and Spitzbergen
by Marquis of Frederick Temple Blackwood Dufferin and Ava
About the author
Born in Florence in 1826, the 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava became one of the best-known British public figures of the Victorian age. Before his highest political appointments, he gained wide attention as a travel writer with lively accounts of journeys to places including Iceland and the North Atlantic.
His public career was remarkably varied. He served as governor general of Canada from 1872 to 1878, later held major diplomatic posts in Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and was viceroy of India from 1884 to 1888. Contemporary reference works and historical biographies remember him as a skilled imperial administrator and diplomat, as well as a polished figure in court and political society.
For listeners coming to his work today, the appeal is often in the voice: curious, observant, and confident, with a talent for turning travel into story. His books offer a window into how a well-connected 19th-century traveler saw the wider world, along with all the energy and assumptions of his era.