Will Robinson

Napoleon of Engineers

The Intemperate Engineer: Isambard Kingdom Brunel in His Own Words

By

Ian Allan 288pp £19.99 order from our bookshop

No engineer in history has come close to rivalling the fame of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. His career reads like fiction. At nineteen, he worked for his father on the first tunnel to pass beneath the Thames, a feat of engineering still connecting Wapping to Rotherhithe on the East London Line. Before it was even finished, he won a competition to build the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This secured his reputation.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • If you want ideas about what to read next, sign up to our free email newsletter, and get book reviews, archive mate… ,
    • 'The heroic male nude could not, I think, be used today to signify civic pride and glory', as Michelangelo’s 'David… ,
    • 'Munch’s later works show us a man liberated from the torments that gave rise to some of the best-known early works… ,
    • 'We read from left to right and from start to finish. Or do we?' Stuart Hannabus considers the merits of reading i… ,
    • Domestic scandal, sexual abuse and serial killers are on the menu in April's crime round-up. revie… ,
    • What did Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds, James Boswell and Edmund Burke all have in common? Clare Bucknell reveal… ,
    • 'Behind Berlusconi’s greasepaint and his rictus grin, the performance of Toni Servillo suggests the affectless holl… ,
    Follow Us