To the Baltic with Bob

Oct 7, 2024 10:30 AM

Author:Griff Rhys Jones

In the summer of 2002, two profoundly amateur sailors, Griff and Bob, set off in an elderly yacht for Russia, because, on the map, it looked easier than sailing to Cornwall. They took Baines with them, as he knew how to mend the engine. And this is their story.

Over four long months of applied bickering in a vessel no bigger than a London taxi, they visited most of the geographically interesting restaurants on the Baltic seaboard. They sailed, over, and, even at one point, onto the mysterious heart of the Nordic world. They pushed themselves to the very limits of human endurance, before finally agreeing to wash their sleeping bags on a cool cycle at number six.

To the Baltic with Bob is the full account of their stirring journey through the longest heat wave the frozen north has ever suffered; of three men in search of the answer to a troubling question: can you really outmanoeuvre a mid-life crisis by running away to sea?

Reviews

Sent shockwaves through the peloton

—— Daniel Friebe , Outdoor Fitness

A devastatingly frank description of life on the professional road cycling circuit, hurtful in its telling of unwelcome truths yet powerful in its capture of what it takes, legally and illegally, to compete

—— Mary Perryman , Huffington Post UK

In the wake of the Armstrong affair, you can’t move for books about doping, but Kimmage, and ex-pro rider himself, was the first to ‘spit in the soup’ back in the 1990s... A must read for any cyclist

—— Cyclist

Magnificent

—— Irish Independent

Engagingly quirky

—— Publishing News

Full of incident, detail and gossip

—— Daily Telegraph

Astounding

—— The Observer

Trower has the perfect pitch for a sentence that illuminates an entire culture

—— Financial Times

His dedication to finding a spiritual dimension to a lost art is hard to fault

—— Wanderlust

Notable for its honesty. The Liverpool defender's published opinion that he is happier retired from international football prompted a media frenzy

—— Martin Pengelly , Guardian

One of the few current footballers worth an autobiography

—— Jonathan Ruppin , Bookseller

Amid the basketful of bland post-World Cup books, McGrath's life story stands out a mile... Fascinating reading.

—— Evening Standard

The Republic of Ireland's most popular sportsman, still adored by fans of Manchester United and Villa.

—— BBC Sport

An all-too honest account of a playing career that just got better and better, despite threatening to go off the rails.

—— Sunday Mercury

An extraordinary book.

—— Irish Independent

Harrowing and brutally honest...a gripping story.

—— Derby Evening Telegraph

Brutally honest.

—— The Irish Post

Less a football autobiography, more repentant confessional.

—— Kevin Hughes , FreeSport

stunning

—— FourFourTwo

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