This book is in very good condition and aside from some minor rubbing on the edges of the covers it shows little signs of wear. The pages are clean and bright aside from some minor foxing to the edges and the binding is sound. There is a signed bookplate pasted to the front free endpaper. A round up of all the innovative post-war achievements that have pushed back the boundaries of the adventurous - on the world's oceans, across deserts, down rivers, up mountains, over the poles, up in balloons, out into space and down into caves. The author talked to most of the adventurous in this book to appraise their motivations, from Wilfred Thesiger crossing the empty quarter and Kon Tiki crossing the Pacific, to the first men on the moon, and taking in Blyth, Ridgway, Knox-Johnston, Chichester, Hunt Hillary, Bonatti, Messmer, Wally Herbert. It was the cave diving in upper Wharfedale which frightened him most and represented the ultimate unknowable. Chris Bonington is the author of "Montaineer"