May 2011 Travel Book of the Month.

Already a classic among sailors, Nichols tell the true story of the inaugural 1968 Golden Globe sailing race: the first single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the world. "One of the most gripping sea stories I have ever read." (Sebastian Junger). It lay like a gauntlet thrown down; to sail around the world alone and non-stop. No one had ever done it, no one knew if it could be done. Only one of the nine crossed the finishing line after ten months at sea. The rest encountered despair, sublimity, madness and even death.

Synopsis

 In 1968, nine men - six Englishmen, two Frenchmen and an Italian - set out to try, a race born of coincidence of their timing. One didn't even know how to sail. They had more in common with Captain Cook or Ferdinand Magellan than with the high-tech, extreme sailors of today, a mere forty years later. It was not the sea or the weather that determined the nature of their voyages but the men they were, and they were as different from one another as Scott from Amundsen.

Reviews

'Told with verve and riddled with drama, you can smell the salty air and feel the spray on every page'
(Sunday Times)

'An enthralling tale of human endeavour and courage in the face of adversity... you don't need to know your spinnaker from your mainsail to enjoy this book'
(Tatler)

'As a carpenter purrs over perfect dovetailing, so I rejoiced in the craftsmanship of this book'
(Simon Barnes)

About the Author

Peter Nichols spent ten years at sea working as a professional yacht captain, living and cruising aboard his own small wooden sail boat, before turning to writing full time. He is the author of three critically acclaimed books: a memoir of those years, Sea Change: Alone Across the Atlantic in a Wooden Boat; Evolution's Captain and Lodestar (a novel). He lives in Paris. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation