A Long Walk Home: One Woman's Story of Kidnap, Hostage, Loss - and Survival - Hardcover

Tebbutt, Judith

4

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9780571303052: A Long Walk Home: One Woman's Story of Kidnap, Hostage, Loss - and Survival

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571303056 ISBN 13: 9780571303052

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2013

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This is the story of how, over a period of one hundred and ninety-two days, I was torn away from the life I knew and loved, and dragged down to the depths of despair; of how I endured enforced isolation and near-starvation at the hands of Somali pirates; and of how I made a choice to survive by any and all means that I could muster.

In September 2011 Judith Tebbutt and her husband David set out on an adventurous holiday to Kenya. A couple for thirty-three years, they had first met in Zambia: Africa had played a major part in their life together. After a joyous week on safari in the Masai Mara, they flew on to a beach resort forty kilometres south of Somalia. And there, in the early hours of 11 September, tragedy struck them.

Judith was torn away from David by a band of armed pirates, dragged over sea and land to a village in the arid heart of lawless Somalia, and there held hostage in a squalid room, a ransom on her head. There, too, she learned the terrible truth that the responsibility of securing her release now rested with her son Ollie.

But though she was isolated, intimidated and near-starved, Judith resolved to survive - walking endless circuits of her nine-foot prison, trying to make her captors see her as a human being, keeping her faith at all times in Ollie.
Powerful, moving and at times quite devastating, this is Judith Tebbutt's story in her own words. It is a memoir of the life she shared with her beloved husband, an unflinching account of the ordeal that overturned her world, and a testament to the inner resilience and familial love that sustained her through captivity.

There is nothing so bad in life as to have no hope - to believe you have been defeated, to give in to that. Now that I found myself in confinement, four thousand miles from home under a hostile sky, I would not accept that fate for myself.

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Review:

Judith Tebbutt's story is inspiring, and leaves you with the feeling that if this woman could show such fortitude, then so might we all ... Her story of terror, despair and survival is as gripping as any thriller, yet told sparely, with no self-pity. It is a testament to the resilience of the individual spirit, but also the the strength of family love ... Vivid and detailed enough to place you firmly in the showed of this extraordinary woman ... A book which is a passionate affirmation of life. Daily Mail A detailed, touching account, revealing not just how she coped but also her tenderness for her husband. -- Colin Freeman Daily Telegraph 20130713 Judith Tebbutt's book about being kidnapped and held to ransom is a wonderfully restrained story of survival against adversity and grief. -- Libby Purves The Times A riveting tale of human fortitude ... A Long Walk Home is an extraordinary tale. Not only is it an action-packed account of a kidnapping and hostage situation, it is also the story of how the author triumphed psychologically against terror, semi--starvation and isolation ...The result is a page-turner in which the action moves at a pace ... Fast-paced though the action is, it is the psychological story that compels. -- Sian Griffiths Sunday Times 20130714 This powerful book captures the urgency of telling even the darkest of stories, and evokes the power of resilience in adversity ... A book that begins with a horrific death becomes a clarion call to cherish whatever we might have left of life.' -- Anita Sethi Observer A keenly vivid memoir. -- Craig Brown Mail on Sunday

Book Description:

A Long Walk Home: One Woman's Story of Kidnap, Hostage, Loss - and Survival is Judith Tebbutt's extraordinary memoir of her time in captivity in Somalia.

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