Taking on the World

Book excerpt: In February 2001 twenty-four year old Ellen MacArthur completed the Vendee Globe, the world's toughest race. As the youngest Briton to circumnavigate the globe single handed and as the fastest woman to ever have done so, her achievement was remarkable. But how had a young woman from a small village in Derbyshire come to find a new home among the waves? In Taking on the World, Ellen tells her story, from saving up to buy her first boat through sailing around Britain as a teenager to racing the Vendee Globe itself. Enthralling and inspiring in equal measure, it shows courage, passion and determination can overcome all obstacles - and how one young woman made her dreams come true.