SAVILIAN ON SAVILIAN – MARCUS POTTER ON SAMUEL WHITE BAKER. CHAIRED BY JEREMY BARLOW.

Samuel Baker (1821-1893) was a founding member of the Savile Club. This is a story about a hardy explorer, big-game hunter and administrator. His travels took him from the jungles of Ceylon to trying to find the source of the Nile before being the predecessor of General Gordon in the Sudan. On a hunting expedition along the Danube with the Maharaja Duleep Singh, he fell in love with a slave girl at an auction, and although outbid, still escaped with her, later becoming his wife, Florence. His adventures are packed with high-Victorian drama, and showcase the very colourful type of member the Savile attracted in its early years. 

Marcus Potter is an explorer and traveller, arranging bespoke journeys for clients to remote corners of Asia. A specialist of 1840s frontier politics in India, he is currently writing his first novel set in the time of the early East India Company.