Titanic

Jock Hume was a young violinist, playing in the band on the Titanic – the band that famously played bravely on, as the ship sank. Jock, along with the rest of the band, died that night. The author of the book is a descendant of Jock and is looking not only at the aftermath of the Titanic disaster, but is looking closely at Jock’s life and volatile relationship with his musician/violinist and violin-maker father. Ward also looks at, in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster, the woman that Jock left pregnant, Mary, whom he intended to marry. The baby that resulted, Johnann (later called Jackie), is the author’s mother.

I really liked this. The first half of the book was more focused on both Jock and the aftermath of the Titanic. There was also some look (I think for comparison purposes) at millionaire John Jacob Astor and his subsequent recovery and his body’s trip home. The second half really did focus on Jock’s family; his father did not like Mary and there were “squabbles” (to put it mildly) and legal battles. I love reading more about the Titanic and I also love biographies, so this worked really well for me. There are plenty of nice photos included, as well. I read the paperback, which had a few updates that didn’t get into the hardcover edition. ( )

This book is first and foremost a very personal family history; well researched and pieced together with great attention to detail as it is, it's not so much a book about the Titanic than the life of violinist Jock Hume, who perished when the ship went down, and the family he left behind. The book is written by Hume's grandson, and while I found parts very interesting and informative, others seemed of more interest to the family rather than a wider audience. ( )

Haven't read a non-fiction book just for my pleasure for a while so it was nice to pick up a book that was very well written and very easy to fall into (forgive the pun). The Titanic disaster will forever remain a sad poignant event in our history but this book brought the individuals alive with a well researched history. I have not seen many books out there that discuss the implications that so many deaths had on British society but this did not mean that this book had a sombre tone to it. It is a very realistic and strong narrative of only a few families/individuals involved in the Titanic disaster but it made the whole event come alive for me. ( )

Haven't read a non-fiction book just for my pleasure for a while so it was nice to pick up a book that was very well written and very easy to fall into (forgive the pun). The Titanic disaster will forever remain a sad poignant event in our history but this book brought the individuals alive with a well researched history. I have not seen many books out there that discuss the implications that so many deaths had on British society but this did not mean that this book had a sombre tone to it. It is a very realistic and strong narrative of only a few families/individuals involved in the Titanic disaster but it made the whole event come alive for me. ( )