The accidental adventurer
By: by Ben Fogle
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2011
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780593068496; 9780593068502
Subjects: Biography; Adventure and adventurers
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: 1. Amazon dreams; title: 2. Finding myself; title: 3. Still finding myself; title: 4. Castaway in the Outer Hebrides; title: 5. Hello! East Timor; title: 6. How to charm worms and get ahead in life; title: 7. Mad dogs and Englishmen; title: 8. The bear vs. the snake; title: 9. Running with lions; title: 10. The winner takes it all; title: 11. The Cracknell years; title: 12. Extreme dreams; title: 13. Pushed to the limit; title: 14. The face of poverty; title: Middle Earth; title: 16. Great Scott.