In her next book, Andrea Wulf, author of the bestselling The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World, recounts the story of another mould-breaker: the German explorer, writer and revolutionary George Forster (a man she has described as “one of the world’s first travel journalists”). At 17, Forster signed on as assistant naturalist and draughtsman on James Cook’s second voyage on the Resolution, which set sail in 1772 and ventured deep into Antarctica and the islands of the South Pacific. Studying the diversity of the nature, peoples and cultures he encountered, he became imbued with a deep belief in the equality of races – an understanding far ahead of his time. On his return he used his fame to argue for human freedom and women’s rights, and against empire, racism and slavery. In The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and his Search for Humanity (Allen Lane, £30, June 2), Wulf tells of his quest “to find what connects us rather than what sets us apart. Vivid, engaging and drawing on Forster’s rich correspondence (almost entirely unpublished in English), The Traveller recounts an extraordinary, passionate life largely forgotten by history.”