Another very good book I've just finished. ( I read a lot on night shift 
) I've copied part of the synopsis from Amazon and pasted it as it's a long story to explain if you don't know the story already.
I bought the DVD 'Deep Water', (which was made by the same people as the film Touching the void) and that got me interested in the story. It's a very good docu-film, but as is so often the case the book 'The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst' is very much better. An excellent read. I found I liked him, and understood why he got himself into his predicament. He was badly slated by the press and general public, but he was undoubtedly brave, if not a little eccentric to give it a go in the first place, it's a big shame it all ended the way it did.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Strange-Voyage-Crowhurst-Sailors-Classics/dp/0071414290
In the autumn of 1968, Donald Crowhurst set out from England in an improbable-looking plywood trimaran to compete in the first singlehanded nonstop round-the-world sailboat race. Although his previous sailing experience was limited, his boat unready, and the electronic gadgetry of his own design unfinished and untested, Crowhurst had managed to persuade first an affluent backer, then the contest judges, and, finally, England's media to regard him as a serious contender. Sailing south through the Atlantic, he radioed reports of record-breaking sailing performances. In the South Atlantic he announced that low battery power would require him to maintain radio silence through the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Eleven weeks later he broke his silence to tell the world he had rounded Cape Horn and was sailing north for England, the elapsed-time leader of the race. Then tragedy struck. Eight months after his departure, Crowhurst's Teignmouth Electron was discovered adrift in an eerie mid-Atlantic calm, intact but without her skipper.
In this tour de force of investigative journalism, Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall tell the story of Donald Crowhurst's ill-fated voyage. Working from Crowhurst's recovered logs and diaries, the authors reconstruct the events leading up to his disappearance: his first few weeks at sea and his growing distrust of his boat; his attempts to come to grips with imminent failure; his decision to hide out midocean in the South Atlantic, away from the shipping lanes, faking a round-the-world journey; and his final, desperate escape from discovery as the would-be perpetrator of one of the biggest hoaxes in sailing history.
) I've copied part of the synopsis from Amazon and pasted it as it's a long story to explain if you don't know the story already.I bought the DVD 'Deep Water', (which was made by the same people as the film Touching the void) and that got me interested in the story. It's a very good docu-film, but as is so often the case the book 'The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst' is very much better. An excellent read. I found I liked him, and understood why he got himself into his predicament. He was badly slated by the press and general public, but he was undoubtedly brave, if not a little eccentric to give it a go in the first place, it's a big shame it all ended the way it did.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Strange-Voyage-Crowhurst-Sailors-Classics/dp/0071414290
In the autumn of 1968, Donald Crowhurst set out from England in an improbable-looking plywood trimaran to compete in the first singlehanded nonstop round-the-world sailboat race. Although his previous sailing experience was limited, his boat unready, and the electronic gadgetry of his own design unfinished and untested, Crowhurst had managed to persuade first an affluent backer, then the contest judges, and, finally, England's media to regard him as a serious contender. Sailing south through the Atlantic, he radioed reports of record-breaking sailing performances. In the South Atlantic he announced that low battery power would require him to maintain radio silence through the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Eleven weeks later he broke his silence to tell the world he had rounded Cape Horn and was sailing north for England, the elapsed-time leader of the race. Then tragedy struck. Eight months after his departure, Crowhurst's Teignmouth Electron was discovered adrift in an eerie mid-Atlantic calm, intact but without her skipper.
In this tour de force of investigative journalism, Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall tell the story of Donald Crowhurst's ill-fated voyage. Working from Crowhurst's recovered logs and diaries, the authors reconstruct the events leading up to his disappearance: his first few weeks at sea and his growing distrust of his boat; his attempts to come to grips with imminent failure; his decision to hide out midocean in the South Atlantic, away from the shipping lanes, faking a round-the-world journey; and his final, desperate escape from discovery as the would-be perpetrator of one of the biggest hoaxes in sailing history.
