When Ellen MacArthur became the youngest person ever to complete yachting's most gruelling race, the Vendée Globe, she also assured herself of a place in sporting history as the fastest woman ever to circumnavigate the globe. As the world watched the images of her disasters and triumphs aboard her boat, MacArthur swiftly entered that pantheon of sportsmen and women whose emotional life we came to share over and above their achievements in their chosen field. We strove against the elements with her, we suffered with her when disaster loomed--and, finally, we could all take vicarious pleasure in her ultimate triumph. This autobiography proves to have been more than worth the wait. The insights we are granted here into just what MacArthur went through genuinely tug at the heart--and never in any sentimental or manipulative way. Her very air of "ordinariness" (no film-star looks, no breast-beating egomania as in all too many sports personalities) was refreshing, but it's that ... read more