Saint Helena — books & literature

The story of Saint Helena

Saint Helena was uninhabited until Portuguese navigator João da Nova sighted it in 1502 during the return leg of a voyage to Asia, naming it after Saint Helena of Constantinople. For over a century it stayed a secret waypoint used quietly by Portuguese and later Dutch ships. In 1657 Oliver Cromwell granted the English East India Company a charter to fortify and settle the island, and the first governor, Captain John Dutton, arrived in 1659 , making Saint Helena one of Britain's oldest colonial possessions and its English dialect one of the oldest varieties of Southern Hemisphere English still spoken. For four centuries, before the Suez Canal opened in 1869, the island was a vital re-provisioning stop for ships rounding Africa between Europe and Asia. Its most famous chapter began in 1815, when the British chose the remote island to hold the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte, who died there in 1821. The island passed from Company to Crown rule in 1834, later also held Zulu King Dinuzulu and thousands of Boer prisoners of war in exile, and only gained a commercial airport in 2017 , ending centuries of five-day mail-ship isolation.

Timeline — key moments

1. 1502

   Portuguese navigator João da Nova sights and names the uninhabited island.

2. 1657

   Oliver Cromwell charters the English East India Company to settle and fortify Saint Helena.

3. 1659

   First governor, Captain John Dutton, arrives; permanent English settlement begins.

4. 1815

   Napoleon Bonaparte is exiled to Saint Helena after his defeat at Waterloo.

5. 1821

   Napoleon dies on the island on 5 May, aged 51.

6. 1834

   Administration passes from the East India Company to the British Crown.

7. 1890-1898

   Exiled Zulu King Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo lives on the island under British custody.

8. 1899-1902

   Over 5,000 Boer prisoners of war are held on Saint Helena during the Second Boer War.

9. 1966

   The New Zealand flax industry, the island's economic mainstay, collapses.

10. 2017

    St Helena Airport opens, connecting the island by air for the first time.

Top 10 things to know about Saint Helena

1. Saint Helena is one of the most remote inhabited islands on Earth, about 1,950 km from Africa and 4,000 km from South America.
2. Discovered (by Portuguese record) in 1502 by navigator João da Nova.
3. Administered by the English East India Company from 1657 until becoming a British Crown Colony in 1834.
4. Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled here after Waterloo in 1815 and died on the island in 1821.
5. The island issues its own currency, the Saint Helena pound, pegged 1:1 to sterling.
6. Home to Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise believed to be the world's oldest living land animal, on the island since 1882.
7. The wirebird (Saint Helena plover) is the island's only surviving endemic bird and national symbol.
8. St Helena Airport opened in 2017, ending total reliance on a five-day mail-ship voyage from South Africa.
9. It forms part of the British Overseas Territory "Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha".
10. The island once grew some of the world's most exclusive coffee , green-tipped Bourbon Arabica descended from 1700s Yemeni stock, still cultivated today.

Famous people from Saint Helena

Say it in Saint Helena's language

Did you know?

• ★Jonathan the tortoise has lived on Saint Helena since 1882 and is believed to be the oldest living land animal on Earth.
• ★Before the airport opened in 2017, the only way to reach Saint Helena was a five-day voyage aboard the RMS St Helena mail ship.
• ★Napoleon's original burial site on the island is still maintained as a French-owned memorial, even though his remains were moved to Paris in 1840.

Saint Helena culture

• English is the sole official language; islanders ("Saints") speak "Saint", a distinct dialect considered one of the oldest varieties of Southern Hemisphere English.
• Saints traditionally greet friends and relatives with "lurvy", a local form of the English endearment "luvvy".
• Fishing, small-scale farming, and heritage tourism built around Napoleonic sites and endemic wildlife anchor daily island life.
• Plantation House, the Governor's official residence, is also home to Jonathan the tortoise, who grazes freely on its lawns.

Why read Saint Helena's books

Saint Helena's written record is small but remarkable: governors' logs, Napoleonic-era memoirs and letters, and early island histories penned by its own colonial chroniclers. Its books shelf gathers that rare literature of the world's most isolated inhabited island.