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Greg Hackett - Editorial Expert
An avid crime and thriller reader when younger Greg is now more interested in non-fiction and in particular books which explain the natural world and our relationship with it. You will also find the biographies of extraordinary people propping up his reading list which is unsurprising as his career has mostly been in live events where he has had the opportunity to hear many remarkable human stories in person. Most recently Greg has founded the London Mountain Film Festival which shares the inspiring experiences of remarkable people doing amazing things in incredible places. He is also a publisher of gifts for hill-walkers and an enthusiastic but challenged home-brewer.
On picking up Enzo Ferrari: The Definitive Biography of an Icon you can't help but notice two things - first of all its vibrant red cover, and secondly the precision of the contents. Both of these things of course are hallmarks of Ferrari's racing cars, so I immediately knew the book was on brand and I was in for a good ride. Luca Dal Monte has done an impressive job in bringing this story to print in such detail, so much so you wonder how he has acquired all this knowledge, even as an automotive journalist who has worked within ... View Full Review
Jessica Hepburn's claim to be the only person to run the London Marathon, swim the English Channel, climb Everest and listen to the entire back catalogue of Desert Island Discs is incredible - especially when you consider there are over 3000 episodes. No doubt those other things are also difficult but 3000!.. that's a listening feat of 24,000 pieces of music which isn't that far off the number of vertical feet that Everest amounts to.
In Save Me From The Waves Jessica weaves her way between her adventurous achievements, the songs and stories of her own life and moments of inspiration derived from ... View Full Review
Neil Laughton fits the classic profile of the Great British Adventurer. He has a glint in his eye, he's up for anything, he's burned through his nine lives and his stories have an edge of eccentricity to them. What sets him apart though is his catalogue of adventures which have involved every continent by land, sea and air. He has genuinely 'done' the planet and lived life to the extreme.
Adventureholic is a thrilling browser's delight. The chapter titles - 'Jungles', 'Deserts' 'The Arctic', 'Mountains', 'Flying Machines' etc, are enough to warn you you're in for a rollercoaster read. I ... View Full Review
Harrison Ward (aka Fell Foodie) has been on my radar for a while, building a large social following and sharing images and tasty treats from some of the most beautiful viewpoints in the country, specifically the Lake District. His life story is inspiring, and so is the idea behind this collection of recipes, but perhaps most remarkable of all is the depth and quality of this, his first cookbook.
Here’s a few that got my mouth watering just at the thought - Chickpea, spinach and coconut curry; Yakitori chicken, Tuscan bean stew… and then there’s ... View Full Review
The arrival of punk in the late seventies came at the point where a movement of self-expression was at fever pitch. In East London, Geoff Deane found himself at the centre of a maelstrom of cultural enlightenment, where a wide spectrum of musical influences were converging and made visible by outrageous haircuts and extravagant fashion.
This era threw up all kinds of talented characters who would become household names. In this memoir, it's clear that the difference with Geoff is he wasn't happy doing the same thing for very long, which is what made him one of the most ... View Full Review
Before testing the hypothesis in the title of this book, it's probably worth reading the opening chapter of Farts Aren't Invisible to get to the, er, bottom of it. Mick O'Hare is obsessed with the kind of quirky trivia that is probably too weird for most pub quizzes. In this book he tackles a number of different themes and then sets about busting myths associated with them, but after diving down those rabbit holes he resurfaces with lots of other factoids which are every bit as interesting.
Don't be put off by the first chapter on 'Flatulence' because following that ... View Full Review
I wouldn't describe myself as very overweight, but over the years I've had to think about it - particularly in the gut department - and I've also from time to time turned to dieting to help improve my overall feeling of wellness. Knowing nothing at all about health and diet, like most people I tried out a couple of things that had been mentioned to me or were popular at the time. Nothing really worked, and it was only when I picked up Weight Wisdom that I learned why.
Alan Jackson has spent the last 25 years researching the subject and ... View Full Review
Having cycled around the world, Leigh Timmis was in need of something even more challenging when he settled on the idea of a record attempt across Europe, from the Portuguese coast to the edge of Siberia. The fact that he completed in just under 16 days and 11 hours smashing over 8 days off the record is a story in itself, but this is the story behind that statistic, the whole truth.
The first half of The Race of Truth details Leigh’s preparations for the ride, in which he hands himself over to sports scientists and psychologists who will help get ... View Full Review
Somewhat randomly Christopher Miller found himself studying and teaching in Eastern Ukraine even before Russia illegally invaded Crimea in 2014. Later as a journalist working for the Kyiv Post he’s in the thick of it - firstly in Kyiv for the uprising, next Crimea and then later the Eastern oblasts where a horrible war rumbles away, only really to grab the full attention of the West on 24th February 2022 when Putin launched a full scale invasion. Over the course of more than a decade Miller seems to have hardly left the country, right up until as recently as December ... View Full Review
Hanging out with Carlton Kirby must be a lot of fun. And if you’re into competitive cycling there is probably no better company. Sticky Bottle is the cycling year as experienced by Eurosport’s legendary cycling commentator, who on the basis of these journals is the Jeremy Clarkson of two wheels. Determined to make every trip memorable, Kirby plunges his considerable character into the local scene, avoiding his hotel room at all costs, unless it’s while hurling over-ripe tomatoes at late night revellers..
He’s playful, impulsive, and certainly confident whether in a Turkish ... View Full Review
Since leaving BBC Breakfasts’s iconic red sofa Louise Minchin has been busy. Busy caving in the wild; busy free-diving beneath ice; busy cycling across Argentina; in fact… busy having no less than 18 jaw-dropping adventures of a lifetime. In Fearless, she tells these adventure stories with the newsreader professionalism you might expect, and we get to meet the 18 phenomenal women adventurers who invited her into their worlds.
Louise seems to have crammed all this into a single year - her competence as a triathlete is widely known but even so, this is a lot of energy, risk and ... View Full Review
As a frequent traveler to the Lake District and a keen hillwalker myself, I picked up Lost in the Lakes with low expectations of improving my local knowledge – I was very mistaken. Tom Chesshyre weaves his way in and out of the fells, through towns and villages, over passes and around lakes like any other explorer with thirty days to spare might, but he does so with exceptional journalistic talent. His particular skill is in meeting interesting people, immediately bonding with them and extracting their best stories. He documents these with great humour and describes the characters he meets ... View Full Review
