Rod Peel on his inspiration and ambition for The Times Extreme Survivors

Since that day when I dug my first snow hole as a schoolboy in the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland, I became absolutely fascinated by human survival. How human beings can survive in harsh climates, how lost explorers would travel for days without food and water. I avidly read and collected every account I could. This was easy because my father, as a history teacher, had a vast collection of old books, and amongst these were epic tales of survival at sea, in war and captivity.

Like the journey of the James Caird by Shackleton's Expedition from Antarctica to the Island of South Georgia - an incredible feat of seamanship. Had the 3 man crew not taken turns to chip away frozen lumps of sea water from the boat every few hours during the 24 hour trip, it would have sunk. There were other stories as well, for example, the Mutiny on the Bounty is well documented from the mutineers' standpoint, but the fact that Captain Bligh sailed 4000 miles without charts and instruments is incredible.

One key thing that I felt would complement these stories would be an accurate map of the journeys that these survivors made. Surely I was not the only person who was curious about where the young Lt Farrah Hockley actually escaped after the battle of the Imjin River, and how far he travelled on foot behind enemy lines? What route did he take? Why did he decide to abandon travelling at night?
And the famous Cockleshell Heroes - what aspects of their escape contributed to the survival of Blondie Hasler and Bill Sparks? Could it have been small details like the fact that they never looked at any of their sketch maps in public, but kept them concealed in the palms of their hands, memorizing portions of their journey so to a casual observer they would just seem to be local labourers going about their business?

So this idea of a book that “mapped out” these extreme survivals was born, indeed a book of maps of each amazing survival. It certainly was difficult to decide on which stories to include - we think we selected some of the most gripping accounts, both modern and historic, but only you, as the reader can judge.