Thursday 25 February 2010

Running around the world

Have recently read Rosie Swale Pope's latest book, Just A Little Run Around The World. Rosie has lived an adventurous life, having sailed round the world with her (first) husband and two children, one of whom was born on the boat, and also sailed single-handed across the Atlantic. She has written books about all her adventures, hence this latest one.
The story begins with death from prostate cancer of her second husband, whom she met when setting out for her solo Atlantic voyage. Rosie decided to run for charities, one for prostate cancer, the other for a Russian orphanage. Her journey started in her home town of Tenby, across to Europe, through Russia and Siberia, then by way of a quick trip to greenland on to Alaska, Canada, the united States and finally home via Iceland, the Faroes, and Scotland. The descriptions of the seemingly unending cold wintry weather she runs through are excellent, and there are a few details of some of the characters she meets on her journey. However, her feelings and emotions are given little attention, not even the terror she must have felt when meeting a very strange man with an axe. Most of the people she does meet are friendly and helpful, perhaps bearing out a comment from Archibishop Desmond Tutu, that there are far more good people in the world than bad. Many helped her when she was in need, others were just friendly, perhaps glad to meet someone from elsewhere in the world, different from their usual neighbours. This is in many ways an inspiring read, although I found the lack of any sort of map a bit irritating.

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