Never Fear

Sir Francis Chichester (1901–72) lived a large-scale life, the stuff of boy’s adventure novels. With this biography, the first in more than thirty years, his incredible experiences get the treatment they deserve.

Born in rural Devon, Chichester suffered through a troubled childhood and an unhappy education before fleeing for New Zealand right after World War I. The move changed his life dramatically: within ten years he had built a successful business in mining, forestry, and development. He also took up the hobby that would come to define his life: flying. In 1930, he became the first pilot to fly solo from New Zealand to Australia, but his subsequent attempt to circumnavigate the globe was less successful: he crashed in Japan and was lucky to survive. Returning to England, Chichester served in the RAF during World War II, then, in his fifties, took up sailing—and quickly became the most famous yachtsman in the world, completing a trip in 1966 that made him the  first man to officially sail around the world solo.

Never Fear tells all these stories in vivid detail, while also capturing the essence of the man himself, offering a rounded, compelling picture of this larger-than-life character.