Adventurers and explorers Books

‘We jumped in at the deep end and bought a farm! A reluctant wife, a couple of crazy kids and a husband whose knowledge of farming you could write on the back of a stamp… What could go wrong?!’ – Kelvin‘Exactly! And the journey has only just begun…’ –...

In the tradition of Dava Sobel's ‘Longitude’ comes sailing expert David Barrie's compelling and dramatic tale of invention and discovery – an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and the daring mariners who...

An exuberant biography of the life of the iconic photographer and naturalist Peter Beard, whose life and work captured the cultural imagination  Peter Beard lived an astonishing life. The artist, wildlife photographer, and bon vivant enthralled...

In the tradition of The Perfect Storm and Into Thin Air, Rachel Slade’s Into the Raging Sea is a nail-biting account of the sinking of the container ship El Faro, the crew of thirty-three who perished onboard, and the destructive forces of globalisation...

A classic memoir of prison breaks and adventure – a bestselling phenomenon of the 1960s Condemned for a murder he had not committed, Henri Charrière (nicknamed Papillon) was sent to the penal colony of French Guiana. Forty-two days after his arrival he...

In Through Her Eyes Australian women correspondents tell their own stories from the frontline – covering the breaking news, the issues and the events that are changing the world. They tell of Russian tanks and Ukrainian mothers fleeing with...

It took ten years in the coal mines for Mitchell Burns to realise that no pay cheque is worth sacrificing your dreams. Now he’s making up for lost time.Mitchell Burns never wanted to be a miner. Growing up in a Queensland coal mining town with parents in...

The astonishing voyage of the first solo crossing of Antarctica by the unlikeliest of arctic explorers.By the 1930s, no one had yet crossed Antarctica, and its vast interior remained a mystery frozen in time. Hoping to write his name in the history...

In the bestselling tradition of Finding Gobi and Marley & Me, the moving story of a dog, his human, and the friendship that saved both their lives – and inspired countless others.Ben Moon had no intention of getting a dog until he met the soulful...

George John Markulis, was proclaimed by the author, his number two son to be the Mythical Greek God of Coal Mining of Carbon County utah. He earned the reputation of being the greatest coal miner in Carbon County, as he was able to bring out more coal in...

Arctic historian Ken McGoogan approaches the legacy of nineteenth-century explorer Sir John Franklin from a contemporary perspective and offers a surprising new explanation of an enduring Northern mystery.Two of Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin's...

Near the death zone on K2, the world's second-highest mountain, Lisa Thompson searched for the strength to continue climbing. Her choices were clear: give in to her doubts and descend or push past her own limits and continue up the mountain's steep face...

Without a map, nineteen-year-old Jake Ducey leaves behind a drug-filled life and college basketball scholarship to wander the world and prove we can find our dreams by following our heart. On the outskirts of civilization, often uncertain, without money...

Go Simple, Go Solo, Go NowIn 1958, while flying from one island to another, Audrey Sutherland sees the remote and roadless northeast side of Molokai, with its spectacular sea cliffs and waterfalls. Always an adventurer, she decides that she must find a...

In a tale remarkable for its quiet confidence and acute natural observation, the author of Paddling Hawaii begins with her decision, at age 60, to undertake a solo, summer-long voyage along the southeast coast of Alaska in an inflatable kayak. Paddling...

This book features rare, once-thought-lost photos of the 1968 first ascent of the California Route on Cerro Fitz Roy, the third ascent of the mountain. With accompanying retrospective essays. Climbing Fitz Roy,1968, presents photo documentation of the...

You Can't Win, the beloved memoir of real lowdown Americana by criminal hobo Jack Black, was first published in 1926, then reprinted in 1988 by Adam Parfrey's Amok Press, featuring an introduction by William S. Burroughs.After its Amok Press edition went...

Here is an entertaining collection of famed conservationist John Muir's most exciting adventures in nature, representing some of his finest writing. From the famous avalanche ride off the rim of Yosemite Valley to his night spent weathering a windstorm...

John Butt came to Swat in 1970 as a young man in search of an education he couldn't get from his birthplace in England. He travels around the region, first only with friends from his home country, but as he befriends the locals and starts to learn about...

"One of the best accounts ever written of deep-water diving and its staggering, haunting dangers." Robert Kurson, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers Deep underwater lurks a mysterious man-made illness. It has gone by many names over the...

'Exciting, funny, and occasionally heart-stopping...readers can stay home and dry, but feel like they are on the high seas.' BOOKLISTA man and his chicken sail 45,000 nautical miles in this powerful story of following your dreams no...

From the acclaimed author of In Praise of Paths comes a humorous and modest Walden for modern times.As nature becomes ever more precious, we all want to spend more time appreciating it. But time is often hard to come by. And how do we appreciate nature...

In this engrossing book, a father and son ascend a mountain together, retracing the steps of a boy who went missing there a century earlier - a quest that spawns a tender meditation on nature, family, and the joy of discovery.Six-year-old Hans Torske...

Experience the quirky missteps, humorous adventures, and professional development of a renowned Canadian photographer in this entertaining memoir.Join Canadian photographer, explorer, Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, father, and writer...

This debut memoir is at once a captivating travelogue and an introspective look at what it takes to navigate the unfamiliar and find your way back home.Meghan J. Ward was 21 years old when she journeyed across the country for a summer job in the Canadian...

"Student of the Woods" follows one young man as he embarks on a journey through life as a hunter. Deep in the woods, life's hardest lessons were learned from firsthand experiences and the natural process of searching for answers. Inevitably, these...

When Richard "Frosty" Hesson was first approached by a young Jay Moriarty in 1990, the skinny kid with a sparkle in his eye only wanted one thing from the icon: his help in becoming a better surfer. Hesson, one of the first to conquer the huge waves off...

In the Ukraine during World War II, a father sends his little son to live with his brother and his wife. Shortly thereafter, the father joins the partisans in the East, while his brother, wife, and the boy proceed West with the retreating Germans. On the...

A poet and journalist looks back on a remarkable journey from Turkey to Nepal in 1978, when the region was on the brink of massive transformation. In the spring of 1978, at age twenty-two, Mark Abley put aside his studies at Oxford and set off with a...

In the colorful tradition of Orwell and Hemingway, Maugham and Theroux, Jerry Hopkins recalls his first decade as a Bangkok expatriate by profiling twenty-five of the city's most unforgettable characters. Among them are the man thought to be the model...

Shackleton: How the Captain of the newly discovered Endurance saved his crew in the Antarctic

When Harold Bell Lasseter disappeared in late 1930 it could have been the end of a mystery. Thirty-three years earlier he had staggered out of the desert, almost dead, his pockets bulging with gold, claiming to have found a 15 kilometre gold reef. The...