Items related to Border Crossing: On the Road from Peking to Paris
Synopsis
On 6th September 1997, Rosie Thomas, mother of two, bestselling author of a dozen novels, nearing fifty years of age, stepped into a Volvo Amazon in Beijing that was to take her half-way across the world. She and her co-driver - nearly twenty years her junior - Phil Bowen, a pearl diver, charter boat skipper and photographer, were set to retrace the run of the first ever international motor rally.
The excitement of the daily time challenge, the strange camaraderie, the bickering over who should drive, the dangerous endurance test of miles on dirt roads, up mountains and through deserts, followed by nights spent sleeping outdoors or in flea pit hotels, is more than matched by Rosie's own internal journey, including a near-death experience at the top of the Himalayas.
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Review
In December 1996 Rosie Thomas received a cryptic message. You know you want to do it. Just say yes. P. The note was from Phil Bowen, a mountaineer and photographer Thomas had met on a trek to the Everest base camp several months before. Bowen wanted her to drive half way round the world with him in an antique Volvo Amazon, in a recreation of the first ever international motor rally, the 1907 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge.
Thomas, mother of two and best selling novelist pushing fifty, didn't exactly fit the young, male rally driver stereotype but decided to do it anyway. As a young woman she hadn't travelled: "Travel was dangerous, and demanded a sense of inner strength and adjustment that I didn't possess." Now she felt more confident. "I held all the threads of my life in my own hands now, and if I wasn't going to travel while I was at the peak of my abilities and still had some physical capacity left, then I probably never would."
Border Crossing is packed with antique cars, millionaire drivers, and, of course, breakdowns--but at its core this is less a book about rallying than about personal challenges. When Thomas's health breaks down she gets little support from the mostly male crew and doctors. She craves emotional support that Phil can't always give. This travelogue takes a refreshingly frank look at the relations between women, men and cars. --Kathleen Keefe
Review
A compelling narrative ... It is a measure of the success of this book that the reader is very nearly as reluctant to turn the last page (INDEPENDENT)
Impressive and pacy (MAIL ON SUNDAY)
A thrilling story (SCOTSMAN)
Inspirational and exciting ... brilliantly told (MARIE CLARE)
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