'My great grandfather and grandfather sailed the Horn, in steam and diesel, out of Liverpool. I was the first generation not to sail the Horn or fight a war. Instead, I would go to the end of the world, beyond Patagonia, to Tierra del Fuego. I would do more, I would see the Horn and find lost tribes. The child in me could go even further and sail the waters of Coleridge's albatross and enter the watercolours' blue horizons of my first novel, and sit on Robinson Crusoe's imaginary shore. I had imagined these places; they must exist. All I had to do was look for them.'
About the author
John Harrison comes from a line of aviators and seafarers. He began travel writing after a life-changing trip to Antarctica. He has won the Wales’ Book of the Year Award twice, and also won the inaugural Alexander Cordell Travel Writing Competition in 2004, and again in 2006. John is a frequent reviewer for New Welsh Review and the Mail on Sunday, and has written for Planet and the Daily Telegraph.