When I give interviews I tend to reply to the question of "what inspired you" with whatever book first pops into my head. So I decided to write them down, the books that really got me into all this. The list is not a list of my favorite travel books (no Bryson, Theroux or Newby on this list). It's just the sheer, unadulterated adventure, wanderlust and courage that leaves you thinking "wow! I wonder if I could do that?" And you'll never know unless you try...

Living Dangerously - Sir Ranulph Fiennes (my number one inspirational lifestyle. Ex-SAS and labeled by Guinness as "the World's Greatest living Explorer")

Mind Over Matter - Sir Ranulph Fiennes (a lesson in determination and the appeal of pointless suffering)

South – Ernest Shackleton (determination and leadership on an awesome level)

The Long Walk – can't remember who wrote it. (The guy escaped from a Siberian gulag and walked to freedom in India. Wow.)

On Foot through Africa - Ffyona Campbell (and I thought it was hard by bicycle)

Johnny Ginger's Last Ride - Tom Fremantle

The Fever Trees of Borneo - Mark Eveleigh

The Kon Tiki Expedition – Thor Heyerdahl (sailing across the Pacific on a balsa wood raft because people told him it was not possible)

Danzinger's Travels - Nick Danzinger (great adventures around Afghanistan and Central Asia, showing that visas and paperwork are not always necessary)

Mallory and Irvine – perhaps the first couple to climb Everest (and Irvine went to the same school as me)

Sailing Alone around the World - Joshua Slocum (the first single-handed circumnavigation. He makes it sound easy!)

High Endeavours - Miles Clark (one of the first travel books I read, about the amazing Smeeton family)

It's Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong (so you think you are having a bad day / working hard / setting yourself challenging targets? Think again!)

The Life of my Choice - Wilfred Thesiger (a true old-school English explorer. He was one of the main reasons I applied to Oxford and joined (briefly) the Boxing Club there. Eton, Oxford, boxing blue, SAS and some incredible journeys, notably in The Empty Quarter)

A Perfect Stranger - Patrick Kavanagh (the physical side of my project has proved to be trivial compared with the other aspects. If you can acknowledge and begin to be honest about your weaknesses then they are no longer weaknesses)

As I Walked Out One Midsummer's Morning - Laurie Lee (my perfect travel book. Exquisitely written, and an adventure for the very best reason people undertake adventures: just for the hell of it.) With my writing I aspire towards a blend of Laurie Lee, Bill Bryson and Ranulph Fiennes. It's quite a challenge!

Touching the Void – Joe Simpson (We can, if we have to, summon extraordinary supplies of determination and situations don't get much grimmer than this)

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom - TE Lawrence (If adventure = risk + purpose, then this is adventure. The fabled 'Lawrence of Arabia' was another acquaintance of David Stirling, the founder of the SAS. Favorite quote: “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream at night in the dusty recesses of the mind wake in the morning to find that it was vanity. But beware the dreamers of the day; for they are dangerous men who may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible)

Through Jaguar's Eyes - Benedict Allen (Benedict managed to go straight from University into this superb adventure and to begin a career in travel. It gave me hope that perhaps I can try and achieve the same)

Eastern Approaches - Fitzroy Maclean (As soon as people start to tell you something is not possible you must begin to think instead that a good adventure lies around the corner. Wanderings in Asia, a spell in the SAS and great adventures in the early days of Tito's Yugoslavia. Apparently the real-life inspiration for the James Bond character)

The Worst Journey in the World - Cherry Apsley Gerrard (When a book with a title like this, and a harrowing tale of Antarctic endurance makes you squirm with envy you begin to think that perhaps it is not quite time for a normal day-job)

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