Product Description

Suffering from culture shock following his successful pilgrimage from Canterbury to Compostela, Ben Nimmo set out again to see if the people in other parts of Europe would be as friendly as those he had met while busking. Deciding that his legs were too tired to walk any further, that travel by train or bus would be too passive, that hitch-hiking was either too fast (if it worked), or too slow (if it didn't) and that any other form of transport would require training, he settled on sailing. With little experience beyond navigating dive boats in tropical waters, Ben set out to cross the North Sea to the Baltic. He found a boat - "Peregrino", the pilgrim, a beautiful ten-year-old vessel with a hull that gleamed like a mirror - and set out on his next adventure.Meeting divers, fishermen and archaeologists; getting rip-roaringly drunk with a Swedish dentist, who taught him some new Rugby songs; gate crashing a jazz festival; nearly drowning in a force ten gale and having his boat appropriated as a playschool for a dozen children under the age of ten, Ben proved that people are indeed the same across Europe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #729677 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author
Ben Nimmo was born in Kendal in 1972 and grew up in Wolverhampton, where he still lives. He attended Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. As a musician he has played in a brass band in New Zealand, recorded a CD with his University Swing Band and played in the Albert Hall. He has spent time helping to rebuild a twelfth century castle in France and teaching scuba diving in Egypt and Belize. He now travels and writes full time.

Customer Reviews

Highly recommended
I loved this and found it very hard to put down (hence why I was late everywhere yesterday) - you know you're hooked when you come home at 03:30 and your first thought is to curl up in bed with the book to finish it. :)

Ben Nimmo is a fantastic talespinner and this book covers his journey around Scandinavia and back to England on his boat, by cycle and by kayak. He meets a motley band of folks (most of whom are called Tommy - it's a Scandinavian thing), does some silly things and entertains throughout. I really recommend this book if you like a good travel yarn.

He intercuts his memories with quotes and descriptions of the heroic legends he got his degree in which makes for interesting reading, he manages to untangle all the complicated family trees and is lovingly irreverent. Just enough that if you weren't interested it wouldn't turn you off but... if you are interested in reading the sagas this book comes with a 6 pages bibliography with info on where the original documents are now kept or who translated them, there are also longer quotes he refers to in the book like the last lines of Lord Of The Kings. More titles to add to my wishlist. :)

Review "In Forkbeard's Wake"
Delightful book accurately portraying characteristics of the local population - the author clearly appreciates the landscape, as I do!
However what about a picture or drawing of the boat?

NB: We know the Guldborg Sound leading to Gedser - very picturesque - but hardly a word. It is of course appreciated that a visit to Helena was imminent and perhaps this was the only scenery to comment upon.