Top

Survivorabilia

On sale

4th March 2027

Price: £22

Selected:  Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781523529780

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

A collection of the most captivating true survival tales ever told-from beloved folk heroes to unsung feats of bravery-accompanied by compelling imagery.
From retellings of classic survival epics like Ernest Shackleton’s famous Antarctic expedition and the Uruguayan rugby team’s 1985 plane crashed in the Andes, to lesser-known stories like Violet Jessop, the ship stewardess who survived three sinkings including the Titanic, author Svati Narula plumbs the annals of history for the most inspirational and captivating examples of people who did not just get lucky, but who-against all odds-made it through.

This collection of over 40 stories spans over 200 years, bringing together well-known epics-like the bear attack that inspired the 2015 film The Revenant, to lesser-known stories like Ada Blackjack, the Inupiaq woman who singlehandedly kept herself, her shipmate, and a cat alive for months on an island in the Arctic, and many more.

Each story is accompanied by a compelling artifact, photo, or piece of art, such as the abandoned shrine a runner hid inside to escape a sandstorm in the Sahara Desert, to the ice axe a climber used to save five of his friends from falling to certain death in what became known as “the miracle belay.”

These narratives illuminate how we behave in the darkest moments, and how we find hope even when all seems lost. They tap into something universal-our will to overcome against all odds.