Ben Fogle's life to date has been action-packed, to say the least. He has rowed across the Atlantic, walked to the South Pole, run the Sahara and ice-skated across Sweden. He has encountered remote tribespeople in deepest Papua New Guinea, caused a Boeing 747 to dump £100k of fuel before making an emergency landing in São Paulo and been mistaken for Prince William on numerous occasions. He has chased a tarantula round his back garden, survived a flesh-eating tropical disease that required two months of chemotherapy and been bitten by a rabid dog.

So how did a cripplingly shy, geeky, perennially homesick boy end up doing all this? Ben's still not entirely sure himself, but this glorious book tells his story and will undoubtedly strike a chord with anyone who puzzles about life, and how to live it differently.

This is not just another tale of derring-do for its own sake. Rather it's a book about defying expectations, conquering shyness, battling laziness and, just occasionally, winning.

Ben Fogle is a TV presenter, writer, adventurer and accidental naturalist. The son of actress Julia Foster and vet Bruce Fogle, his life has never been exactly ordinary. As well as taking part in many of the toughest physical challenges on earth, from rowing the Atlantic to walking to the South Pole, Ben has found himself diving with blue whales near Sri Lanka, tracking great white sharks off the coast of California and racing dogs across the Arctic circle.

Ben has presented numerous programmes, including the BBC's Animal Park, Countryfile, Wild in Africa, Wild on the West Coast, Crufts, One Man and His Dog and Swimming with Crocodiles. He is an ambassador for WWF, Tusk, the PDSA and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the President of the Campaign for National Parks and President of the Hedgehog Preservation Society.

He lives in London with his wife Marina, their children Ludo and Iona, and their two dogs Maggi and Inca. He is currently preparing to swim across the Atlantic.