A Race Too Far

Nov 5, 2024 10:21 PM

Author:Chris Eakin

A Race Too Far

The true story of the tragic round-the-world yacht race - now the subject of The Mercy, starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz

In 1968, the Sunday Times organised the Golden Globe race–an incredible test of endurance never before attempted–a round the world yacht race that must be completed single-handed and non-stop.

This remarkable challenge inspired those daring to enter–with or without sailing experience. A Race Too Far is the story of how the race unfolded, and how it became a tragedy for many involved.

Of the nine sailors who started the race, four realised the madness of the undertaking and pulled out within weeks. The remaining five each have their own remarkable story. Chay Blyth, fresh from rowing the Atlantic with John Ridgway, had no sailing experience but managed to sail round the Cape of Good Hope before retiring. Nigel Tetley sank while in the lead with 1,100 nautical miles to go, surviving but dying in tragic circumstances two years later. Donald Crowhurst began showing signs of mental illness and tried to fake a round the world voyage. His boat was discovered adrift in an apparent suicide, but his body was never found. Bernard Moitessier abandoned the race and carried on to Tahiti, where he settled and fathered a child despite having a wife and family in Paris. Robin Knox-Johnston was the only one to complete the race.

Chris Eakin recreates the drama of the epic race, talking to all those touched by the Golden Globe: the survivors, the widows and the children of those who died. It is a book that both evokes the primary wonder of the adventure itself and reflects on what it has come to mean to both those involved and the rest of us in the forty years since.

Reviews

Wonderful and utterly compelling

—— Colin Firth

Plimpton will interest even the man who can't tell a pitching wedge from a putter... This is really a book about a kind of madness with rules, and anyone can appreciate the appeal of that

—— Newsweek

Golf is a lonely and private game, lacking the natural drama of football, but Plimpton, by subsituting improvisation for plot, has caught its mad comedy and bizarre effects on people in a book just as charming, in its own way, as Paper Lion

—— Life

With his gentle, ironic tone, and unwillingness to take himself too seriously, along with Roger Angell, John Updike and Norman Mailer he made writing about sports something that mattered

—— Guardian

What drives these books, and has made them so popular, is Plimpton’s continuous bond-making with the reader and the comedy inherent in his predicament. He is the Everyman, earnests and frail, wandering in a world of supermen, beset by fears of catastrophic violence and public humiliation, yet gamely facing it all in order to survive and tell the tale… A prodigious linguistic ability is on display throughout, with a defining image often appended at the end of a sentence like a surprise dessert.

—— Timothy O'Grady , Times Literary Supplement

For a book which, at heart, is no more than two friends chatting about football, there is a lot to like.

—— The Economist

Their correspondence is, at times, very personal and the reader gets the impression that the two writers are connecting on a deeper level, able to express views and thoughts that they wouldn’t share with anyone else. It is this feeling that as a reader you are being welcomed into a lively conversation about politics, life and everything in between, which makes the book so enjoyable and engrossing.

—— Chris Tilbury , Prospect

The pair make lively correspondents.

—— Max Liu , i

It's fun and possibly a fruitful format for future tournaments.

—— Giles Smith , The Times Books of the Year

It is worth having a read of this…to be reminded again of the joy of sport and how it adds colour and passion and pleasure to modern life.

—— Paul Rouse , Irish Examiner

[It is] elegantly written.

—— Morning Star, Book of the Year

An interesting and unusual study of the global appeal of football

—— Richard Mason , When Saturday Comes

They both love football. So the letters are about football but also lots of other things. It reminds you that watching football is about lots of other things too… I really enjoyed this.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

This is the definitive written history and celebration of one of sport’s most socially influential and thrilling episodes

—— Nick Pitt , Sunday Times

Evokes times when West Indian cricketers were…dominant

—— Huw Richards , Guardian

Excellent

—— Andy Bull , Observer

One of the areas in which Lister really does a fantastic job is balance of opinion. The author has his own views, some more common sense than others, but he gives column inches to all sides of a story and allows everyone a chance to state their case… here's an excellent balance between sport and life. It gives great insight into some fascinating individuals and doesn't shirk the big issues. It's comprehensive, an easy read and never overstays its welcome… This book is a must read for the cricket fan out there, full of interesting stories, tales from the tour and a really close look at one of the best sporting outfits of all-time.

—— Wexford People

Brilliant, bruising

—— Donal Ryan , Sunday Independent

This is so much more than the story of their journey – it’s a superbly written, endlessly fascinating book encompassing history, geology, landscape, family memories, wars experienced and lives well lived.

—— Choice Magazine

One of the most unexpected and enjoyable reads of 2016… The book fizzes erudition and is delightfully leavened by the companionship of his aged and doughty father.

—— Guardian, Readers' Book of the Year

A very funny book - not jovial in the post-Wodehouse Boris mode but something more taught and Caledonian... The politician in Stewart never had a chance against the writer, a reliable adversary of consensus and cant.

—— Minoo Dinshaw , Oldie

Beautiful, evocative, and wise.

—— Malcolm Forbes , Star Tribune

The Marches is a transporting work from a powerful and original writer.

—— Harvard Press

This beautifully written account is a moving memoir of tales from along the route but also reflections on life and relationships – father and son on this their last journey together.

—— Prospect

Rory Stewart is one of the most talented men of our era. The Marches takes us from Rory’s constituency to his family house is an attempt to understand the bloody history of the Scottish borders… The quest is fascinating even if the answers are elusive.

—— Bruce Anderson , Spectator

As the book unfurls, the march along the marches turns into a eulogy to his father, part memoir, part biography, always a love story. It also contains one of the most unflinching, moving descriptions of death I have read.

—— Melanie Reid , The Times

This beautifully written book is a haunting reflection of identity and our relationships with the people and places we love.

—— Jane Shilling , Daily Mail

Stewart provides much food for thought about how we value our past history

—— Susannah Law , Scottish Field

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