Endurance: 100 Tales of Survival, Endurance and Exploration

by Levison Wood

100 of the most astonishing stories of human survival, adventure and exploration, chosen by Levison Wood.

We are always captivated by tales of courage and bravery, of world-firsts and death-defying experiences. In this anthology, explorer and bestselling author Levison Wood has gathered 100 of the most fascinating accounts of human endurance throughout history. From the heroism of Antarctic explorers to pioneering women in the Middle East; from record-breaking athletes to survivors of war and torture, this wide-ranging collection embraces both classics of the genre, as well as new and neglected voices. The extracts are organised around a range of themes; you will find those who sought out new frontiers, or who purposely tested their physical limits in full knowledge of the dangers or risks they might face, but also those who endured persecution and suffering, or were thrust into life or death situations yet defied the odds to survive.

Endurance is packed full of you-couldn't-make-it-up true stories and adventure fiction classics, from the high seas to the poles, from inhospitable jungles and deserts to the unknown realms of space, through physical and mental despair to euphoric highs. Yet all of these extraordinary stories celebrate the enduring nature of the human spirit, and show the mental and physical determination it sometimes takes to achieve one's aims.

This varied and compelling collection will take you on an adventure around the world, but also on an emotional journey exploring what it means to be human.

Includes extracts about and by Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay, Amelia Earhart, Marie Colvin, John Krakauer, Solomon Northrup, Ella Maillart, Freya Stark, Ed Stafford, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Aron Lee Ralston, María Elena Moyano, Gertrude Bell, Isabelle Eberhart, Nellie Bly, Alex Honnold, Nelson Mandela, David Nott, Jules Verne, Neil Armstrong and Scott Kelly.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

632 pages, Hardcover

Published August 18, 2022

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an engaging catalogue of snippets from 100 tales. It's now created a new bucket list of reads.

[Matt Mcgorry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ahhhh what a shame!!! I was so excited for this book and it’s genuinely really interesting but the typos and grammar errors after just 37 pages became too distracting.
Levison hasn’t done anything wrong; the publishers just haven’t done their job of proofreading. It feel like a disservice to the authors of each of the extracts.
As soon as a proofread version is published, I’ll pick up from where I left off but for now it’s going back on the shelf.

[Jan-paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I would like this book, but turns out reading just a few pages of 100 stories is no fun. It took me a very long time and it’s littered with spelling errors, wouldn’t recommend.

[Lindsay Eaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I nearly didn't read it because of some negative reviews complaining about bad spelling and grammar, but I decided to go ahead regardless, and I'm really glad that I did. I'm a reasonably well-educated New Zealander in my 70s and I really dislike bad spelling and grammar, but I'm happy to say that I didn't find any in this book. Instead there were 100 well chosen stories about endurance, all of them taken from other books and introduced by the author. While some of them weren't to my taste, many of them were, and I just skipped over the ones I didn't like. All in all, I thought it was a great book, so thanks Mr Wood.

[Rich Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Endurance to read but not in a bad way. As it is a series of extracts it made for perfect bite sized reading sessions. Some of these extracts were genuinely tension inducing and I could feel my heart racing as the writers approached their goal.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a great book, but I've dropped a star because this edition is littered with typos, which were distracting. The next edition definitely needs a good proofread.