PETER NICHOLS

Diez meses antes de la llegada del hombre a la Luna, nueve hombres muy diferentes entre sí habían salido en barcos pequeños y mal equipados, decididos a hacer lo que hasta entonces nadie había conseguido: dar la vuelta al mundo sin escalas y sin ayuda externa. Solo uno de los nueve conseguiria llegar y obtener fama, riqueza y gloria. Para el resto de participantes la aventura de la Golden Globe les recompensaria con la desesperacion, la locura y la muerte.Aunque esta regata fue la fuente de inspiracion para la Vendee Globe y The Race, sus participantes tenian mas en comun con el capitan Cook y Magallanes porque entonces no habia alta tecnologia de navegacion; sobrevivian con sus ingenios y su ingenuidad, navegando al lado del sextante, el sol y las estrellas. Su tecnologia mas sofisticada, cuando funcionaba, era una radio.Una regata de locos es una increible historia de nueve aventureros, nueve personajes dispares, heroicos, desesperados y tragicos, en plena lucha contra el mar, soportando los mas fuertes temporales, la soledad mas inimaginable, las aguas mas traidoras, y debiendo tomar decisiones correctas en esos momentos en que un error puede significar la diferencia entre la vida y la muerte.

Set on the island of Mallorca, The Rocks is a double love story told in reverse. Opening in 2005 with a dramatic event that seems to seal the mystery of two lives, the story moves backwards in time, unravelling over sixty years, amid the olive groves and bars, the boats and poolside parties, the lives and relationships of two intertwined families within an expat community of endearing and flawed characters. As one story is revealed, another, sweeter one, a love story of a couple from the younger generation, arises in the wake of their elders' failures. The Rocks is a darkly comic, bittersweet, finally heartbreaking novel, that slips back in time to reveal the shocking incident that marked and altered these lives for ever.

A comienzos del siglo XIX, el Beagle zarpó rumbo a Tierra del Fuego, una zona de mares increiblemente peligrosos. Su capitán, Robert Fitzroy, llevaba como pasajero nada menos que a Charles Darwin. Peter Nichols narra con autentica maestria ese viaje insolito, y entreteje la vida de estos dos singulares personajes antagonicos. Darwin y Fitzroy representaban mundos contrapuestos y su enfrentamiento anuncia la revolucion que habria de producirse en la concepcion que hoy tenemos del hombre, su origen y su destino.

The playwright Peter Nichols was a compulsive diarist all his life. He wrote for himself alone, responding to an urge to record the daily doings, private and professional, of his family, his fellows - and himself. The resulting diaries are candid, insightful, and often as shockingly funny as his plays.This selection, republished to mark the playwrights 90th birthday, covers the extraordinarily fruitful period between his first real hit, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, to the stirrings of his masterpiece, Passion Play.As the seventies dawn, Peter Nichols is watching Joe Egg being filmed - and hating it. His next play, The National Health, is doing good box office for Oliviers National Theatre - but Olivier is hating it. And Forget-Me-Not Lane is shortly to open at the new Greenwich Theatre amid much anxiety. And then there are three small children (and a fourth in long-term hospital) to cope with, an extended family and the renovation of a tumbledown barn in rural France.What emerges is one of the most revealing and hilarious accounts of a writers life, and how whatever success comes along everyday life will keep getting in the way. As Nichols attempts to negotiate the world he has found himself in a world populated by the likes of Albert Finney, Kenneth Tynan, Stephen Sondheim, Michael Frayn and John Osborne he finds that he is never free from having to entertain his in-laws or cope with children vomiting in the back seat.NicholsDiaries are a brilliantly funny, acerbic study of theatrical life, a warts-and-all portrait of parenthood, and a fascinating companion to that remarkable decade, the Seventies.Sometimes he says terrible things that strike home to ones heartMichael Frayn

"Peter Nichols has crafted a terrifyingly relevant historical narrative...A terrific read." -Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In The Heart of the Sea In 1871, Americas last fleet of whaling ships was destroyed in an arctic ice storm. Miraculously, 1,218 men, women and children survived, but the disaster was catastrophic at home. Oil and Ice is the story of one fateful whaling season that illuminates the unprecedented rise and devastating fall of Americas first oil economy, and the fate of todays petroleum industry.

Nel 1968 il quotidiano britannico Sunday Times decise di indire la Golden Globe, la prima regata della storia a prevedere la circumnavigazione del globo in solitario, senza scalo.Il libro, appassionante come un thriller, racconta nel dettaglio la storia e la navigazione dei nove iscritti. Quattro dei partecipanti si ritirarono prima di lasciare lOceano Atlantico. Dei cinque rimasti, Chay Blyth, che era partito senza alcuna esperienza di navigazione, doppio Capo Horn per poi ritirarsi, Nigel Tetley affondo a 1.100 miglia nautiche dallarrivo, mentre era in testa, Donald Crowhurst tento di simulare la circumnavigazione per evitare la rovina finanziaria, ma poi ebbe un crollo psicologico e si suicido. Bernard Moitessier, che non riusciva ad accettare la dimensione agonistica e commerciale dellevento, abbandono la gara mentre era in ottima posizione, continuando a navigare fino a raggiungere Tahiti, dopo aver compiuto una volta e mezzo il giro del mondo. Robin Knox-Johnston fu lunico a completare la regata, diventando il primo uomo a circumnavigare il globo in solitario e senza scalo. Dopo la vittoria il grande navigatore inglese dono le 5.000 sterline di premio a un fondo a sostegno della famiglia di Crowhurst.

Le 30 juin 2018, trente marins quitteront Plymouth pour un tour du monde en solitaire et sans escale à bord de voiliers d’un autre temps. Pas de GPS, de pilotes électriques, d’appareils photo numériq

"An extraordinary story of bravery and insanity on the high seas. . . . One of the most gripping sea stories I have ever read." Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect StormIn the tradition of Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm, comes a breathtaking piece of maritime history and an oceanic adventure about an obsessive desire to test the limits of human endurance.In 1968, nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever heldthe Sunday Times Golden Globe Raceand never before completed: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death.Gorgeously written and meticulously researched by author Peter Nichols, this extraordinary true story of survival chronicles the contest of the individual against the sea, waged at a time before cell phones, satellite dishes, and electronic positioning systems. A Voyage for Madmen is a tale of sailors driven by their own dreams and demons, of horrific storms, and of those riveting moments when a decision means the difference between life and death.This definitive account of the legendary Golden Globe Race goes inside each boat to chronicle the harrowing truth of what happened on the high seas.The Daring First Golden Globe: In 1968, nine men set off on a challenge thought impossibleto sail alone, nonstop around the world. Nine Sailors, One Survivor: Ten months later, only one would cross the finish line. For the others, the race ended in madness, failure, and death. Desperate Conditions at Sea: A riveting account of horrific storms and life-or-death decisions in the age before GPS, satellite phones, or electronic positioning systems. A True Story of Obsession: Gorgeously written and deeply researched, this is the unforgettable story of the dreams and demons that drove each man to his fate.

Three generations, two families and the dangerous delights of a Mediterranean island, The Rocks is a bittersweet chronicle of unresolved feuds.Set on the island of Mallorca, The Rocks is a double love story told in reverse. Opening in 2005 with a dramatic event that seems to seal the mystery of two lives, the story moves backwards in time, unravelling over sixty years, amid the olive groves and bars, the boats and poolside parties, the lives and relationships of two intertwined families within an expat community of endearing and flawed characters. As one story is revealed, another, sweeter one, a love story of a couple from the younger generation, arises in the wake of their elders failures. The Rocks is a darkly comic, bittersweet, finally heartbreaking novel, that slips back in time to reveal the shocking incident that marked and altered these lives for ever.