'I like hourglasses, maps, eighteenth century typography, the roots of words, the taste of coffee and the prose of Stevenson' said Jorge Luis Borges. Inspired by Borges and a chance discovery in a second hand bookshop, Nicholas Rankin became enthralled with Robert Louis Stevenson, the man and his works. When he died in Western Samoa in 1894 at the age of forty four, Stevenson was already a legend. Nearly a century later Nicholas Rankin followed in his footsteps from Ediunburgh to the South Seas. This meticulously researched, deliciously gossipy book is the result.