First Overland : London-singapore by Land Rover

Slessor, Tim; Attenborough, David, Sir

ISBN 10: 1805265636 / ISBN 13: 9781805265634

Published by Hurst, 2026

Seller Inventory # 51356563-n

Synopsis:

Decades before Race Across the World, six friends made the epic journey from London to Singapore and back in two Land Rovers.

Why not? No-one had ever done it: one of the longest of all overland journeys, from the English Channel to Singapore. Several expeditions had tried. Some had reached the Persian deserts; a few, the Indian plains. But none had gone further: over the jungle-clad Assamese mountains, across northern Burma, to Thailand and Malaya. It was 1955. For the final 3,000 miles, it seemed, there were ‘too many rivers and too few roads’. But no-one really knew...

They were undergraduates with no money, no cars―no nothing, except cool audacity. They wheedled and cajoled, coaxing the BBC into supplying film for a possible series; ‘persuading’ Rover to lend them two factory-fresh off-road vehicles; sweet-talking a book publisher into offering an advance. By the time they set off, their eighty-plus sponsors ranged from whiskey distillers to collapsible bucket–makers. Seven months and 12,000 miles later, two weary, police-escorted Land Rovers rolled into Singapore to flash-bulbs and champagne. Here, their bestseller is republished, with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough. He had given them that film, after all.

About the Author:

Tim Slessor was a British filmmaker, presenter, traveller and author. He made documentaries for the BBC for nearly fifty years and won a prestigious Peabody Award for his journalism. He also authored More Than Cowboys: Travels Through the History of the American West.

Bibliographic Details

Title: First Overland : London-singapore by Land ...
Publisher: Hurst
Publication Date: 2026
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: New