Sir John Barrow (1764–1848) was a distinguished British government servant whose diplomatic career took him to China and Africa, and who in forty years as Secretary to the Admiralty was responsible for promoting Arctic and Antarctic exploration, including the voyages of Sir John Ross, Sir William Parry, Sir James Clark Ross and Sir John Franklin (the last of which famously ended in disaster). Barrow's autobiography, written when he was eighty-three, depicts a life extraordinary for its range of experience and activity, from a small farm in the Furness peninsula to the court of the Emperor of China, and from an apparently settled life as a civil servant at Cape Town to the centre of affairs at a time when the British Navy's reach and influence reached their highest point. This fascinating account will be of interest to anyone interested in exploration and the history of the British Navy.