This is an inspirational story of a family man struck down with heart failure in his prime - just as he and his wife (and children) had decided to sail a circuit of the Atlantic for a year. Devastated that his plans are thwarted he endures seven operations in eight months as procedure after procedure fails, with heart attacks in between. Finally, he has to endure open heart surgery - and immediately makes plans for his 'trip'.

This is the story of an incredibly determined sailor totally unwilling to give up his dream in the face of massive odds. Narrated with present-tense immediacy, this is John's account of drowning in heart disease, fighting back to the surface and sailing on. It begins with him flat on his back in a local health club, gasping for air. It ends 31 months and 4000 miles later when he and his family sail their boat into Schull Harbour, Ireland.

Funny, tragic, uplifting, humorous - it will 'speak' not only to timid sailors, wondering if they are brave enough to take that big step (whatever 'big' is in their own terms) but also to anyone facing immense difficulties, setbacks and even life-threatening danger in their non-sailing lives. It is an inspirational story with a message for everyone.

Paperback 256 pages. 198x127 mm.

All are proper pubs, serving real ales and, often, home cooked food as well. Most you can reach by car, but if you can, visit by boat or canoe, or walk or cycle along the towpath to them. However you get there, enjoy!

Spend the day unravelling the mysteries of fascinating lock flights, discovering the marvels of manmade heritage and meeting waterways wildlife.

Enjoy locally brewed ales and ciders, huddle up to cosy open fires in winter and loll in waterside beer gardens in summer, watching narrowboats drift by.

Handpicked characterful canalside pubs

Each pub is featured in detail with the authors' discerning observations & inspiring photography

All you need to get the most out of a full day out:

sightseeing, boat trips, towpath ambles, gongoozling (canal speak for watching boats)

Packed with essential information about food, drink & transport (and of course, tips on great real ales)

Dog-friendly info

Over 250 inspiring colour photographs

Waterside pubs from across the whole of the UK

Each pub day out has been personally researched by the authors and handpicked from their end-to-end canal trail (long pub crawl!) which has attracted media interest

General interest in the canals is at an all-time peak and growing, with over 250 million annual individual visits

So begins an amazing true story of a journey to Antarctica in a 27-foot sailing boat. After travelling through South America to Tierra del Fuego, the only continent David had never visited beckoned to him across treacherous waters. Ships booked for scientific expeditions wouldn't take him, and tourist cruises didn't appeal. Then he saw a little boat in the harbour, its name hand-painted in red on the hull: Berserk.

Together with a 'crazy Viking' and a down-on-his-luck Argentinian, the author set sail to follow Shackleton's voyage with little idea of the tumultuous storms, mishaps and emergencies that loomed on the journey to the world's coldest and most inaccessible continent. He brilliantly recounts their experience of the huge waves, the bleak darkness and the delicate balance of personalities where a mutiny was always in the air.

Paperback, Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm, Number of pages: 320

Paperback, Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm, Number of pages: 320

Gritty and raucous, these true confessions of adventures on board a merchant ship - in the bad old days before regulations made everything ship-shape and orderly - are a riot from start to finish. A must-read for anyone who's ever dreamt of running away to sea, Baboulene's stories will make you weep with laughter.

Paperback, Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm, Number of pages: 320

Terry and Monica Darlington, both pensioners, decided to sail their canal narrowboat 'Phyllis May' across the English Channel through Belguim and France to the Mediterranean with their whippet Jim.

Steve has a new member of crew aboard his narrowboat, Justice - but maybe not the kind he'd have wanted if he'd known the trouble she'd cause. Kit, an untidy bundle of fur with all the attitude you would expect from a 'sarf Lunnun' cat, joins Steve as he cruises the waterways on a mission to discover lost parts of England. Casting aside the road maps that show England to be an interlocking web of motorways, Steve gets a different perspective on the modern world as he cruises the canals through a landscape unchanged for centuries, visiting picturesque towns and waterway festivals along the way.

Paperback, Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm, Number of pages: 320

Paperback Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm Number of pages: 320

first published as "Fruit flies like a banana"

Born in 1901, at the age of eighteen and with a taste for adventure, Francis Chichester emigrated to New Zealand with only ten pounds in his pocket. With the impetuousness of youth, he tried his hand at a myriad of jobs, some more successful than others, and by the age of twenty-six, had been a farmhand, a boxer, a shepherd, a lumberjack, a member of three trade Unions - the Firemen's, the miners' and the Timber Workers' - a railway worker, a gold prospector, a coal miner, a door-to-door salesman, and a land agent. And it was only then that his real adventures began.

It would be from a chance business venture that Chichester would discover the passion for travel that would become his life. With a fellow risk-taker, he helped to establish an early aviation company and began to fly the planes - though not necessarily with an immediate talent. But enthusiasm and experience made him a leader of the field, and in 1929 he embarked on his most famous flight: a solo enterprise in the Gypsy Moth from England to Australia. He was only the second person ever to accomplish this feat.

A great sailor as well as aviator, further journeys came hot on the heels of Chichester's achievements in the air - including winning a trans-Atlantic race in the yacht Gipsy Moth III - and in 1967 he was knighted.

The Lonely Sea and the Sky is Sir Francis Chichester's acclaimed autobiography; a tale of ardour and adventure, of intrepid endeavours on land, on the sea and in the air, and of the physical and mental challenges he faced. The life and sheer temerity of his undertakings mark Sir Francis Chichester as a true old-fashioned adventurer.

Paperback, Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm, Number of pages: 320

Paperback, Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm, Number of pages: 320