Treasured Islands : Cruising the South Seas with Robert Louis Stevenson

This is an account of the last years of Robert Louis Stevenson's life and his death in Samoa.

It explores Stevenson's desperate search for health and the fulfilment of his lifelong ambition of crossing oceans in tall ships.

It examines daily living on commercial sailing vessels between 1888 and 1890, as well as life on the South Pacific islands that Stevenson visited in the late 1880s.

There are contemporary photographs and line drawings of the ships that Stevenson sailed on, and tales of colourful characters such as beachcombers, and island potentates and their subjects.