Beyond the Limits: The Lessons Learned from a Lifetime's Adventures

In a career spanning more than 30 years, Sir Ranulph Fiennes has circumnavigated the globe, broken numerous records, and experienced triumph and disaster. The high points are many, but there are low points too—the failed expedition to Antarctica in 1996, when painful kidney stones forced him to turn back; and the solo and unsupported attempt to reach the North Pole in 2000, which ended in horrendous frostbite and near death. In Beyond the Limits, Fiennes looks back over a lifetime of extraordinary adventures and talks about the lessons he has taken away from each one, from the importance of preparation and leadership to the value of persistence.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is the world's most celebrated contemporary adventurer and explorer; in this handsomely illustrated volume, he talks about the lessons learned from his successes and failures.

Katherine Gillen - KLIATT

Ibsen wrote "There is always a risk in being alive, and if you are more alive, there is more risk." Ranulph Fiennes has patterned his life after these words, even before he included them in his latest book. The Guinness Book of Records nominated him as "the world's greatest living explorer," but before earning such a title, Fiennes went through a short period of desperate unemployment. Out of the British Army after eight years in German and Oman, with considerable survival and language skills but no job offers, he started work on a book about his experiences on an expedition up the Nile. Offers to lecture on this subject followed. Fiennes discovered that "Expedition lectures were easy to give . . . expeditions might well provide a viable format for self-employment. If I could organize and carry out an expedition a year on a fully sponsored basis then, even though nobody would pay me for doing it, I could recoup my expenses and make a basic living while planning the next year's journey." (p.29) With a game plan in place, Fiennes has followed this course for 30 years, going everywhere from Egypt to Norway, Antarctica to British Columbia. Unlike previous professional travelers such as H.V. Morton or Charles Doughty, this is not a meditative guide, with lots of history thrown in. Colorful photographs throughout enhance a breezy text. Every chapter ends with a section entitled "The Lessons Learned." Two of these are: "The fewer people involved with any given project, the better. There are very few exceptions to this rule." and " When hi-tech systems fail, be ready to revert immediately to traditional means of doing the job." (p.159) An enjoyable but optional purchase for public and highschool libraries. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Little Brown UK, dist. by Trafalgar Square, 223p. illus., Ages 15 to adult.