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Ranulph Fiennes has travelled to the most dangerous and inaccessible places on earth, almost died countless times, lost nearly half his fingers to frostbite, raised millions of pounds for charity and been awarded a polar medal and an OBE. He has been an elite soldier, an athlete, a mountaineer, an explorer, a bestselling author and nearly replaced Sean Connery as James Bond. In his autobiography he describes how he led expeditions all over the world and became the first person to travel to both poles on land. He tells of how he discovered the lost city of Ubar in Oman and attempted to walk solo and unsupported to the North Pole - the expedition that cost him several fingers, and very nearly his life. Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes OBE, 3rd Baronet, looks back on a life lived at the very limits of human endeavour.
I honestly didn't think I'd get into the book.
I'm so glad I read it. It took me a while (it's a long book) but I absolutely enjoyed it.
It starts off slow, you want to get to the polar expeditions, and it seems to take a long while to get there -- which isn't surprising, as Fiennes didn't exactly start doing them in his teenage years.
I've seen interviews -- who hasn't? -- and he always struck me as slightly arrogant, slightly cold and blase, yet witty.
He's definitely an alpha male, no question. Needs to be in charge, but can defer to someone else for a while if need be.
I'm impressed by what he went through, what he achieved...but it was the way he wrote about Ginny that impressed me even more. Here is a man who braved the extremes, who didn't think twice about amputating his own fingers -- and whose deep sense of devotion to his wife comes across without loud words or bragging, but rather in a quiet, persistent way.
Reading about Ginny's death made me cry. Not because of how it was written -- very matter of fact and straightforward -- but because of what someone else said. "The following Friday you phoned us in the evening and told me that dear Ginny had died just fifteen minutes earlier and that she was still in your arms."
THAT, more than anything, made the tears well up, and it still does. It showed me a man who was heartbroken and didn't want to lose the one person he held most dear in his life.
It truly is a remarkable account of a life lived to the fullest.
Read it. You won't regret it.
