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Narrow Escape: The Narrow Boat Books (The Narrow Boat Books #3)
By Marie Browne. 2013
“Oh, you live on a boat? That must be really cold in the winter...” Or, “Oh, you live on a…
boat? It must be great being so close to nature...” Or, “Oh, you live on a boat? It must be fantastic to be able to go wherever you like, whenever you like...” Narrow Escape sets out to dispel these commonly held public myths. From how to avoid assassination by ninja stealth ducklings, through definitive proof that kittens are aliens and the best way to sleep at forty-five degrees, to the importance of having the right boating equipment; (a child’s plastic sledge and a never ending supply of cotton wool balls). This month by month account of one family’s liveaboard year takes a firmly tongue in cheek look at what it takes to enjoy the ‘idyllic’ lifestyle.Space Below My Feet
By Gwen Moffat. 1961
A classic mountaineering memoir by one of the UK's foremost female climbers.'A story of climbing and compulsive love of mountains…
... magnificent' OBSERVERIn 1945, when Gwen Moffat was in her twenties, she deserted from her post as a driver and dispatch rider in the Army and went to live rough in Wales and Cornwall, climbing and living on practically nothing. She hitch-hiked her way around, travelling from Skye to Chamonix and many places in between, with all her possessions on her back, although these amounted to little more than a rope and a sleeping bag.When the money ran out, she worked as a forester, went winkle-picking on the Isle of Skye, acted as the helmsman of a schooner and did a stint as an artist's model. And always there were the mountains, drawing her away from a 'proper' job.Throughout this unique story, there are acutely observed accounts of mountaineering exploits as Moffat tackles the toughest climbs and goes on to become Britain's leading female climber - and the first woman to qualify as a mountain guide.Never Leave a Man Behind: Around the Falklands and Rowing across the Pacific
By Mick Dawson. 2020
'Mick Dawson's gripping Never Leave A Man Behind, effectively two adventure stories for the price of one, can be justifiably…
described as "unputdownable". Dawson is a man you would want on your side, whether in battle or tackling waves as high as houses should you ever consider rowing the Pacific.'Sports Book of the Month'An excellent read, it puts you in the boat, understanding what it's like to be in an extremely challenging environment while maintaining composure, cheerfulness and respect for your fellow men. I cannot recommend it highly enough'Keith M. Breslauer, Trustee of The Royal Marines Charity'Breathtaking - builds tension from the very start with life-and-death challenges throughout. Courage and comradeship at their very best, showing how mental and physical disabilities cannot and are not allowed to define or undermine the human self. Leaves you in awe and respect for one man determined to help his muckers win their battles whatever it takes - at great personal cost'Jonathan Ball, Director, The Royal Marines CharityThe stories of two veterans - one traumatised, one blind - who rediscover themselves with the help of a friend in the course of two epic ocean adventures, kayaking around the Falklands and rowing across the Pacific.Mick Dawson tells the story of kayaking around the Falkland Islands with friend and fellow Royal Marines veteran Steve Grenham, who was struggling to cope with the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and the extraordinary tale of his 2,500-mile voyage in a rowing boat with his friend and former Royal Marine Commando Steve 'Sparky' Sparkes, who was not only a rowing novice, but also blind. Sparky and Mick succeeded in rowing across the finish line after a truly epic voyage of over 2,500 miles from Monterey Bay in California to Waikiki, Hawaii. They'd hoped to break the record for a two-man rowboat and finish in less than fifty-five days, but a hurricane interfered with their plans. It took them eighty-two days, sixteen hours and fifty-four minutes to complete the race, but it was an even greater achievement for that, and Sparky became the first visually impaired person to row across the Pacific.The race with Sparky was the second expedition of an organisation Mick had set up a few years earlier, The Cockleshell Endeavour, designed to help another former Royal Marine and friend, Steve Grenham, by kayaking with him around the Falklands, where both former commandos served during the 1982 conflict with Argentina.Amelia Earhart: The Sound of Wings
By Mary S. Lovell. 2009
When she disappeared in 1937 over a shark-infested sea, Amelia Earhart had lived up to her wish - internationally famous,…
a daring and pioneering aviator, and ambassador extraordinary for the United States. Married to a man with a genius for publicity, her life was crowded, demanding and adventurous. Mary S. Lovell's superb biography examines a legend to reveal the pressures and influences that drove Amelia, and shows how her life, career and manner of death foreshadowed the tragedies and excesses of a media-dominated age.DON'T RUN, Whatever You Do: My Adventures as a Safari Guide
By Peter Allison. 2007
The Okavango Delta, Botswana: a lush wetland in the middle of the Kalahari desert. Aged 19, Peter Allison thought he…
would visit for a short holiday before going home to get a 'proper job'. But Peter fell in love with southern Africa and its wildlife and before long had risen to become a top safari guide.In Don't Run, Whatever You Do, you'll hear outrageous-but-true tales from the most exciting safaris. You'll find out when an elephant is really going to charge, what different monkey calls mean and what do in a face off with lions. Sometimes the tourists are even wilder than the animals, from the half-naked missing member of the British royal family to the Japanese amateur photographer who ignores all the rules to get the perfect shot.Don't Run, Whatever You Do is a glimpse of what the life of an expert safari guide is really like.Beyond Possible: The man and the mindset that summitted K2 in winter
By Nimsdai Purja. 2020
'An inspirational study in leadership and a powerful testament to the human spirit at its very best.' - Mail on…
Sunday'If you're going to get one book this year get Beyond Possible.' - Ant Middleton'The energy of the book gives it pace and you whip through, rather as Purja nips up verticals... Whether or not you are a lover of the mountains, you will marvel at his tenacity, his fearlessness. No one can fail to be inspired by what he achieved.' - The Times'Not only does Nims have exceptional physical stamina, he's also a leader with great skills in financial management and logistics.' - Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb all fourteen highest mountains in the world'The magnitude of his achievement is astonishing.' Soldier Magazine'A Living Legend.' Trail Magazine***In Beyond Possible Nimdai Purja tells the story of his life before his recent epic achievement of leading the team that scaled K2 in winter. He reveals how leadership, a willingness to learn, integrity and collaboration are essential qualities behind the world's greatest mountaineering feats. Nimsdai is the first man ever to summit all 8000m 'Death Zone' peaks in less than 7 months, and this book reveals the man behind the climbs - how his early life in Nepal and Special Forces training made him the person to go beyond possible...The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mount Everest
By David Roberts, Conrad Anker. 1999
In 1999, Conrad Anker found the body of George Mallory on Mount Everest, casting an entirely new light on the…
mystery of the lost explorer.On 8 June 1924, George Leigh Mallory and Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine were last seen climbing towards the summit of Everest. The clouds closed around them and they were lost to history, leaving the world to wonder whether or not they actually reached the summit - some 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay.On 1 May 1999, Conrad Anker, one of the world's foremost mountaineers, made the momentous discovery - Mallory's body, lying frozen into the scree at 27,000 feet on Everest's north face. Recounting this day, the authors go on to assess the clues provided by the body, its position, and the possibility that Mallory had successfully climbed the Second Step, a 90-foot sheer cliff that is the single hardest obstacle on the north face. A remarkable story of a charming and immensely able man, told by an equally talented modern climber.Miracle In The Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home
By Nando Parrado. 2006
In October 1972, Nando Parrado and his rugby club teammates were on a flight from Uruguay to Chile when their…
plane crashed into a mountain. Miraculously, many of the passengers survived but Nando's mother and sister died and he was unconscious for three days.Stranded more than 11,000 feet up in the wilderness of the Andes, the survivors soon heard that the search for them had been called off - and realise the only food for miles around was the bodies of their dead friends ...In a last desperate bid for safety, Nando and a teammate set off in search of help. They climbed 17,000-foot-high mountains, facing death at every step, but inspired by his love for his family Nando drove them on until, finally, 72 days after the crash, they found rescue.Soul Fuel for Young Explorers
By Bear Grylls. 2004
TV star, former SAS soldier, Guinness World Record holder, author and the first ever Chief Ambassador to World Scouting, Bear…
Grylls is an inspiration for youngsters who want to make the most of life's adventures. In his recent bestseller Soul Fuel Bear revealed for the first time the inspiration that helps him to stand strong and find peace each day. Now Soul Fuel for Young Explorers takes his message and inspires children and young people to find courage and confidence in this source too.Bear offers seventy reflections along with stories from his own life -- brilliantly illustrated by Patrick Laurent -- making it a vibrant and engaging devotional for young readers. 'Faith doesn't mean you have to be especially "religious". But, in a nutshell, my faith tells me that I am known, that I am secure and that I am loved - regardless of the storms I may find myself in from time to time, regardless of how often I fall and fail.'- Bear GryllsSoul Fuel: A Daily Devotional
By Bear Grylls. 2019
Bestselling author Bear Grylls has survived a free-fall parachute accident that left him with a broken back, possibly unable to…
walk again; falling down a mountain in the Rockies, severing a finger in the Vietnam jungle, a broken shoulder in Antarctica. He passed the gruelling training to join the SAS, crossed the North Atlantic in an open inflatable boat, and held the highest ever open-air formal dinner party, in a balloon at 25,000 feet.But the hardest thing he has ever had to face, he says, is the death of his father. It was then, age 25, that he found what he describes in an interview with the Telegraph as 'a really lovely quiet faith that has been a powerful thing in our lives'.As he wrote in GQ magazine, 'Faith doesn't mean you have to be especially "religious". But, in a nutshell, my faith tells me that I am known, that I am secure and that I am loved - regardless of the storms I may find myself in from time to time, regardless of how often I fall and fail.'For the first time, in this open, brave and honest book, Bear reveals the inspiration that helps him to stand strong and find peace each day. These daily readings - exploring themes of friendships, failure, courage, risk, and much more - show us all how to face each day with purpose and power. 'Be brave. Embrace faith wherever you may find it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.'An Ode to Darkness
By Sigri Sandberg. 2019
WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE THE STARS?'Look at a satellite image of the Earth. Where it was once as dark…
as night, it is now lit up like a Christmas tree. If you zoom in on a city, you'll see floodlights, neon lights, car lights, and streetlamps. If you zoom in even further, to your own bedroom, you might see lamps and TV, tablet, and phone screens.Humans have always struggled with the dark, but isn't it light enough now? What is all this artificial light doing to us and everything else that lives? What is it doing to our sleep patterns and rhythms and bodies?AN ODE TO DARKNESS explores our intimate relationship with the dark: why we are scared of it, why we need it and why the ever-encroaching light is damaging our well-being. Under the dark polar night of northern Norway, journalist Sigri Sandberg meditates on the cultural, historical, psychological and scientific meaning of darkness, all the while testing the limits of her own fear.This is the true story of Colonel Edward Marcus Despard, the character in the fifth series of the BBC's popular…
television drama Poldark. Colonel Despard was the last person to be sentenced to hanging, drawing and quartering in Britain - for high treason, an alleged plot to kill the king. His execution on 21st February 1803 was witnessed by twenty thousand hushed onlookers. Their silence was ominous, for few believed he was guilty. His death would tear apart a Britain still reeling from the impact of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. But who was Edward Marcus Despard? Was he, as his comrade-in-arms on the Spanish Main Lord Nelson believed, an outstanding British army officer of unimpeachable honour, courage and patriotism? Or, as the white slave-owners of the Caribbean claimed, a traitor not only to his nation but to his race, who had married a local woman and championed the rights of freed slaves?And when Despard returned to London to answer these allegations, did he commit himself to the cause of political reform in Britain's best interest? Or did he join a shadowy international terrorist conspiracy dedicated to the murder of George III and the overthrow of the state? Despard's contested fate marked the sensational climax to a British revolution that never happened, but it also presaged the birth of modern democracy.'Compelling, absorbing and wide-ranging . . . Jay weaves a complex variety of themes, many with overtly topical resonances, into Despard's journey from hero to traitor'Sunday TimesYasuke: The true story of the legendary African Samurai
By Geoffrey Girard, Thomas Lockley. 2019
WARRIOR. SAMURAI. LEGEND.The remarkable life of history's first foreign-born samurai, and his astonishing journey from Northeast Africa to the heights…
of Japanese society.The man who came to be known as Yasuke arrived in Japan in the 16th century, an indentured mercenary arriving upon one of the Portuguese ships carrying a new language, a new religion and an introduction to the slave trade. Curiously tall, bald, massively built and black skinned, he was known as a steadfast bodyguard of immense strength and stature, and swiftly captured the interest, and thence the trust, of the most powerful family in all of Japan. Two years later, he vanished.Yasuke is the story of a legend that still captures the imagination of people across the world. It brings to life a little known side of Japan - a gripping narrative about an extraordinary figure in a fascinating time and place.Narrow Escape: The Narrow Boat Books (The narrow Boat Bks. #3)
By Marie Browne. 2013
“Oh, you live on a boat? That must be really cold in the winter...” Or, “Oh, you live on a…
boat? It must be great being so close to nature...” Or, “Oh, you live on a boat? It must be fantastic to be able to go wherever you like, whenever you like...” Narrow Escape sets out to dispel these commonly held public myths. From how to avoid assassination by ninja stealth ducklings, through definitive proof that kittens are aliens and the best way to sleep at forty-five degrees, to the importance of having the right boating equipment; (a child’s plastic sledge and a never ending supply of cotton wool balls). This month by month account of one family’s liveaboard year takes a firmly tongue in cheek look at what it takes to enjoy the ‘idyllic’ lifestyle.Travelling with Ghosts: An intimate and inspiring journey
By Shannon Leone Fowler. 2017
'A cross between H is for Hawk and Wild' Stylist'A brave and necessary record of love, as beautiful as it…
is heartbreaking' Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth'Rich and absorbing' Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love'Gloriously rendered, beautifully written, but utterly devastating . . . an intimate and inspiring experience' Viv Groskop, ObserverOn a warm evening on a beautiful beach in Thailand, Shannon Leone Fowler's life was shattered when a box jellyfish - the most venomous animal in the world - wrapped itself around her fiancé Sean's legs, stinging and killing him in minutes. Devastated by the tragedy, Shannon, a marine biologist, could not face returning to her home by the ocean. She had travelled the world with Sean, and to honour his memory set out on a new journey - this time alone, to make sense of her loss. From contemplating the silence of Auschwitz, to stumbling through poverty-stricken Romania and Bulgaria, to sitting shiva amid daily bombings in Israel, to finding humour and creativity in Sarajevo, a city still scarred by war, Shannon begins to chart a path through grief - learning to live with loss without letting it destroy her.Includes an interview between Shannon Leone Fowler and her mother, author of international bestseller The Jane Austen Book Club and Man Booker Prize Shortlisted We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler.The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst: Now Filmed As The Mercy
By Ron Hall, Nicholas Tomalin. 1970
'A masterpiece.' New Yorker'Wholly riveting, brilliantly researched.' Evening Standard'A meticulous investigation into the seeds of disaster... fascinating, uncomfortable reading.' Sunday…
Times In 1968, Donald Crowhurst was trying to market a nautical navigation device he had developed, and saw the Sunday Times Golden Globe round the world sailing race as the perfect opportunity to showcase his product. Few people knew that he wasn't an experienced deep-water sailor. His progress was so slow that he decided to short-cut the journey, while falsifying his location through radio messages from his supposed course.Everyone following the race thought that he was winning, and a hero's welcome awaited him at home in Britain. But on 10 July 1968, eight months after he set off, his wife was told that his boat had been discovered drifting in mid-Atlantic. Crowhurst was missing, assumed drowned, and there was much speculation that this was one of the great mysteries of the sea. In this masterpiece of investigative journalism, Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall reconstruct one of the greatest hoaxes of our time. From in-depth interviews with Crowhurst's family and friends and telling excerpts from his logbooks, Tomalin and Hall develop a tale of tragic self-delusion and public deception, a haunting portrait of a complex, deeply troubled man and his journey into the heart of darkness.THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWhen you are racing 435 miles through the jungles and mountains of South America, the last thing…
you need is a stray dog tagging along. But that's exactly what happened to Mikael Lindnord, captain of a Swedish adventure racing team, when he threw a scruffy but dignified mongrel a meatball one afternoon.When they left the next day, the dog followed. Try as they might, they couldn't lose him - and soon Mikael realised that he didn't want to. Crossing rivers, battling illness and injury, and struggling through some of the toughest terrain on the planet, the team and the dog walked together towards the finish line, where Mikael decided he would save Arthur and bring him back to his family in Sweden, whatever it took.'An incredible journey' Daily Telegraph'Arthur latched onto an extreme sports team during the Amazon race - and what happened next will melt the hardest heart' Daily MailPeak Performance: The First Welsh Woman to Climb Everest (Quick Reads Ser.)
By Tori James. 2012
‘You fall you’re dead,’ the voice inside my head told me. I was balancing on a knife-edge ridge, sheer drops…
either side of me. The cold was chilling me to my core. But I could not give up. I had to focus, The summit was within reach.Everest: the highest mountain in the world and also one of the most dangerous. On May 24 2007, Tori James made history when she became the first Welsh woman, and youngest British woman, to climb to the summit of Everest. It was an amazing achievement for the petite farmer’s daughter from Pembrokeshire. In Peak Performance Tori shares the inspiration and drive that helped her to succeed in reaching the ‘rooftop of the world’.Providence and the Invention of American History
By Sarah Koenig. 2021
How providential history—the conviction that God is an active agent in human history—has shaped the American historical imagination In 1847,…
Protestant missionary Marcus Whitman was killed after a disastrous eleven-year effort to evangelize the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. By 1897, Whitman was a national hero, celebrated in textbooks, monuments, and historical scholarship as the &“Savior of Oregon.&” But his fame was based on a tall tale—one that was about to be exposed. Sarah Koenig traces the rise and fall of Protestant missionary Marcus Whitman&’s legend, revealing two patterns in the development of American history. On the one hand is providential history, marked by the conviction that God is an active agent in human history and that historical work can reveal patterns of divine will. On the other hand is objective history, which arose from the efforts of Catholics and other racial and religious outsiders to resist providentialists&’ pejorative descriptions of non‑Protestants and nonwhites. Koenig examines how these competing visions continue to shape understandings of the American past and the nature of historical truth.Exploration Fawcett
By Col. Percy Fawcett. 1953
The life of Colonel Fawcett is now the subject of the major motion picture The Lost City of Z.The disappearance…
of Colonel Fawcett in the Matto Grosso remains one of the great unsolved mysteries. In 1925, Fawcett was convinced that he had discovered the location of a lost city; he had set out with two companions, one of whom was his eldest son, to destination 'Z', never to be heard of again. His younger son, Brian Fawcett, has compiled this book from letters and records left by his father, whose last written words to his wife were: 'You need have no fear of any failure . . .' This is the thrilling and mysterious account of Fawcett's ten years of travels in deadly jungles and forests in search of a secret city.