- Lime, Jean-Hugues. Le roi de Clipperton. Paris:
Le Cherche Midi, 2002. ISBN 2-86274-947-8.
- This fascinating novel, reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, is based on
events which actually occurred during the Mexican occupation of Clipperton Island from 1910
through 1917. (After World War I, the island returned to French
possession, as it remains today; it has been uninhabited since 1917.)
There is one instance of bad astronomy here: in
chapter 4, set on the evening of November 30th, 1910, the Moon
is described as «…très
lumineuse…. On y voyait comme
en plein jour.» (“…very
luminous;…. One could
see like in broad daylight” [my translation]).
But on that night, the Moon was not visible at all! Here is the sky above Clipperton at
about 21:00 local time courtesy of Your Sky.
(Note that in Universal time it's already the morning of
December 1st, and that I have supplied the actual latitude
of Clipperton, which is shown as one minute of latitude
too far North in the map on page 8.) In fact, the Moon was only 17 hours before new as shown by
Earth
and Moon Viewer, and hence wasn't visible from anywhere on
Earth on that night. Special thanks to the person who recommended
this book using the recommendation
form! This was an excellent read which I'd otherwise never have
discovered.
November 2003 