True grit
Bear Grylls is a born survivor. But he's not the first. Take the American bombardier Louis Zamperini, who survived 47 days stranded at sea by catching and killing hungry sharks and drinking the warm blood of albatrosses only to be captured by the Japanese and horrifically tortured for years in their most brutal POW camps. Or Marcus Luttrell, a Navy Seal who single-handedly took on a Taliban army before dragging his bleeding, bullet-ridden body for days through the harsh mountains of Afghanistan. Or Nando Parrado, one of the survivors of a horrific air-crash high in the ice-bound Andes, who only lived because they were willing to eat the flesh of their dead companions. In this gripping new book, Bear tells the stories of the adventurers, explorers, soldiers and spies whose refusal to quit in the most extreme situations have inspired him throughout his life. Some of them make uncomfortable reading, because survival is rarely pretty. But all of them are tales of eye-watering bravery, physical resilience and sheer mental toughness by men and women who have one thing in common: true grit.