The adventurers in this book are at least loosely British and, although heroes in battle are not represented, there are certain (representative) female secret agents of the Second World War, whose acts (in voluntary service, beyond the call of simple duty), surely took them out of the arena of straight-forward battle and into the realm of the most individual and courageous adventure.
The overall objective is to renew interest in the lives of some of our real heroes and heroines, as representative of the many others that there are; in an age in which contemporary sporting and pop art ‘heroes’ dominate the news and provide the only readily evident ‘inspiration’. The subjects, who are generally lesser known adventurers, are drawn from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The feats cover a wide spectrum, from Sir Richard Burton’s daring in making the Hajj pilgrimage to Sir Thomas Lipton’s gentler adventures, in the nature of trade, in seeking out sources of, and markets for, tea. Yet each made a memorable contribution to the world. Some of the subjects were very, very good; some of them were very, very bad, and they all share the characteristics of: originality; a sense of self-determination, unfettered by the diktats of Tin-Hitlers; a thirst for living; perseverance and persistence, even defiance; many of them showed bravery, some of them to a truly exceptional degree and they all lived without the wish to have lived more quietly. In short, they shared a rage for life and yet also managed to see beyond themselves and the times in which they lived.