The Ballad of the Kon-Tiki is a long narrative poem describing the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, in which 6 men travelled across the South Pacific, from Peru to Polynesia, on a balsa-wood raft. It recounts the perils they faced; an encounter with a whale shark, a man overboard and the crash-landing on the Raroia reef at journey’s end which reduced the raft to wreckage - “the cabin battered, a house of cards collapsed on deck; the helm in splinters, and the steering block a mangled crock …”. The Ballad of the Kon-Tiki takes up about half of this volume. The rest consists of a number of other poems, including The Weaver Birds, a fable about a bird who rescues his mate from trouble, and The Bishop and the Devil, a comedic poem in which a medieval French bishop uses the devil’s cunning against him. Ian Serraillier (1912 – 1994) was an English novelist and poet. He retold legends from England, Greece and Rome and was best known for his children's books. Published by Oxford University Press in 1952. Good condition. Binding is OK. With Dust Jacket.