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This adventure story tells of an epic voyage around the world in a Series 1 Land Rover. The author chronicles the Rover Boys progress through letters, diaries, photographs and personal stories. His research provides detailed context-setting about the extraordinary and dangerous route they too. From his life-long personal relationship with both men he recounts memories of the story-telling and the emotions behind the decisions they made.
You will meet famous paleoanthropologist, Dr. Louis Leakey; seminal anthropologist Colin Turnbull; Ann Dagg world-renown giraffe biologist; conservationist, Sir Peter Scott; film-maker, David Attenborough; the Maharajah of Sikkim and many other luminaries.
The story takes you across Africa in the midst of de-colonial strife; through India, Nepal, Sikkim and, impossibly – Burma; travel Thailand, Malaysia and the Australian outback meeting indigenous peoples, scientists, drug lords, spies and SAS commandos; hunt with pygmies, climb the Mountains of the Moon, and barely escape death on safari.
You will find intimate insights into Robert Bateman’s artistic career and experience some of the world’s most beautiful places through his eyes. Most importantly, you will discover the maturing of a deep and abiding friendship between two incredible men who went on to challenge their world. An extraordinary tale – a daring, intense adventure that would change them forever.
Some kind words about the book:
“Part travelogue, part post-war history, part coming-of-age story – this is an unforgettable journey of two young men who find beauty in a changing world and become who they were meant to be.”
Ross King, Governor General’s Award-winning author of The Judgement of Paris
“In 1957 two Americans, Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassady, became legends with the publication of On the Road, a fictional account of a drive across the United States that was less a journey than an opportunity for an intense and performative celebration of self. That same year two Canadians, one an aspiring artist of 26, the other a wildlife biologist just 25, went around the world by road, eyes wide open to wonder with nary a thought given to their own place in their unfolding saga. What mattered to them as they traversed the Serengeti, inched through mud forests of Congo, reached India and Nepal, joined military forays into the jungles of Malaya, reaching finally the deserts of Australia was what lay beyond the shadow of self, everything to be seen and experienced on the very edge of uncertainty and true adventure. Along the way they forged a bond of friendship that would endure for more than sixty years, even as both men left an indelible mark on the world. The Rover Boys is their story, finally told, and it is a glorious account.”
Wade Davis, ethnographer & best-selling author of The Wayfinders, Into The Silence, Magdelena and 21 other books.
To order your copy of the book please write to the author: Info@calliope.ca. The Rover Boys is also available as an ePUB edition on Kindle and Kobo worldwide.