This Precious Isle

Evoking the spirit of both Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat and Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around The World, this charming book is an observational portrait of contemporary Britain, told from the point of view of a fifty year old first time adventurer who, without planning or preparation, sails around Britain. During the summer of 2007 Kim Sturgess undertook his first major sailing adventure. Like so many weekend sailors Kim had, over a number of years, enjoyed club racing and several brief sailing holidays with friends, but never attempted a substantial solo expedition. Then, aged fifty-three, enacting a type of middle age rite of passage, and without significant planning or the usual preparation, Kim undertook a 1900 nautical mile, ninety-four day travel adventure circumnavigating Britain during the worst summer in more than two centuries. This Precious Isle is a narrative of the voyage, interspersed with diary observations made during his visits to forty-eight towns in the British Isles. The book was written to inspire the fifties 'everyman' to leave the comfort of the couch and discover both themselves and their home island.