The accidental adventurer

the long version

Ben Fogle has had a life for which the word extraordinary is barely adequate. He has rowed across the Atlantic, walked to the South Pole, run the Sahara and skated across Sweden. He has encountered WWII plane wrecks in deepest darkest Papua New Guinea, flesh-eating diseases in Peru and snakes in Venezuela. He has repatriated East Timorese refugees back from West Timor and filmed in refugee camps in Sudan. He got lost in a minefield in Argentina and caused a 747 to dump 200k of fuel before making an emergency landing in Rio de Janeiro. He has chased armed burglars from his house using a sledge, survived a tropical illness that required two months of chemotherapy and been bitten by a rabid dog. So how did a cripplingly shy, geeky, perenially homesick, spotty boy end up achieving all this? Ben's still not entirely sure himself, but this glorious book will undoubtedly strike a chord with anyone who puzzles about their life, and how to live it differently. This is not just another tale of derring-do and adventure. Rather it's a book about defying expectations, conquering shyness, battling laziness and, just occasionally, winning.