This page lists and summarises nonfiction books on travel, exploration and adventure. Listed books have been published by Top of the South writers and are available for purchase.
To find out where to buy the book and learn more about the author, click on the author's name.
To find out where to buy the book and learn more about the author, click on the author's name.
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No One Said It Would Be Easy
Des Molloy (2019) Not a travel book but a reflective record of a boisterous adventure of substance, a recollection of a youth well-spent. On a pre-war BSA and two obscure, obsolete Yorkshire-made, single-cylinder Panther motorbikes Des and friends ride the Americas with youthful naīvety. |
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Oceans Alone
Rebecca Hayter (2004) At sixteen, Chris Sayer dreamed of competing in one of the world's greatest ocean races - alone. Starting out with little more than an unshakeable determination and a will to dedicate his life to the task, he went on to achieve phenomenal international success: the first non-Frenchman in 15 years to stand on the winners' podium at the Mini Transat race, a 4000 mile race across the Atlantic Ocean. |
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Storms Ahead
Rebecca Hayter (2023) Rick Dodson was a two-times world champion sailor whose many victories led to his role as strategist on board Team New Zealand when it won the 1995 America’s Cup. But for the successful defence in 2000, Rick was sailing with a secret: a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS), which would eventually debilitate him. |
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The Big Sit
Des Molloy (2024) Another trip for Penelope, one of the last single-cylinder Panther motorcycles from the firm of Phelon and Moore. Conquering her fifth continent took some time and resulted in adventures. Unsupported and alone, it truly is a big sit. For more than 25,000 km Des sits and cogitates. As always his thoughts and observations are whimsical and wide ranging. … and how did the previous four continents go? |
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The Ernie Diaries
Des Molloy (2023) It is often said that youth is wasted on the young. Des would only agree to the point that many don't realise there is a small window between the time you leave the umbrella of your upbringing, and the embracing of grown-up responsibilities like relationships, mortgages, children, career pathways etc. The Ernie adventures took place in that 'sweet spot'. |
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The Last Hurrah
Des Molloy (2020) Des, friend Dick, and son Steve ride old single-banger British bikes half way across the world through some of the most difficult and remote terrain imaginable. Was this idiocy or odyssey? Decide for yourself as you read Des Molloy’s account of their adventures and misadventures. |
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Wild Seas to Greenland
Rebecca Hayter (2004) In 2017, yachting journalist Rebecca Hayter set out from the UK with veteran ocean racer Ross Field to sail the Northwest Passage. For Rebecca, it was a personal journey as a sailor and a voyage of research as a journalist. It was a chance to learn as well from Ross Field’s 35 years of ocean racing as he refitted a tired, 20-year-old aluminium yacht and skippered his boat across the North Atlantic. |
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Zen and the Last Hurrah
Des Molloy (2021) A modern re-enactment of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ride. On a correct-period 1965 Honda Superhawk and R69S BMW, Des and his companions follow the back-country roads of 1960s America, recording their thoughts and experiences and comparing them with Pirsig's observations. |