The book Laurie Lee wrote – As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning – is my favourite travel book of all time.

In 2012 Alastair rowed across the Atlantic Ocean.

As I lie on my side in the tent trying to decide what to write about, I catch sight of my reflection in the small, handheld gadget I’mm typing this on.

I spent six weeks in the Canadian Arctic on an Ice Base on the frozen Arctic Ocean at 78 degrees north (at the spot often referred to in polar races as ‘The North Pole’, though in fact it was the 1996 location of the magnetic North Pole).