Far Horizons

Published 2010.
Non-fiction account of the authors travel to unusual destinations like Djibouti, Socotra and Sumatra.

Lost on a remote Sumatran volcano…pursued through a Tokyo backstreet by a Japanese gangster…picnicking with the French Foreign Legion in the Horn of Africa: Frank Gardner’s idea of a holiday is not everyone’s. But ever since his student days, the BBC security correspondent has done some epicly hard travelling in a remarkable number of countries. Drawing on the diaries, sketches and photos he kept during his travels, his immaculately observed accounts of these often strange, sometimes daring, adventures form the backbone of his new book.

In June 2004, while on what should have been a routine assignment in Riyadh, his life – never mind his ability to travel the world – was nearly brought to a violent end by Islamist gunmen. Frank survived against all the odds and through force of will, has found himself looking towards far horizons once more. He’s not only been skiing in the Alps, scuba diving in the Red Sea and explored the jungles of Cambodia, he is also reporting once more from far-flung destinations like Afghanistan and Colombia – and this is a man who no longer has the use of his legs…

This is Frank Gardner’s compelling, personal account of the myriad adventures that made him the man he was on that fateful day – and of the journeys he’s made since, and how they’ve helped him to become the remarkable and inspiring individual he is today.

Frank Gardner doesn’t see himself as any kind of hero, but he does see himself as someone who was blessed with physical skills and an insatiable curiosity about the world out there, and nearly being gunned to death is not for him the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning. The fact that his reassuring presence and balanced, well-informed reports are still on our screens in these difficult times is a sign of an unquenchable spirit. It’s the spirit that courses through the pages of this book and the spirit that, whether he might like to think so or not, is a huge inspiration to many like him. And like me.
MICHAEL PALIN, from his Foreword to Far Horizons

Gardner is a good storyteller…Always revealing, often riotous and sometimes very moving
TIME OUT

His adventures fly off the page…entertaining and charmingly self-deprecating
NEWS OF THE WORLD

A bold, life-affirming read
GQ magazine