These days no one challenges us,' he said. 'And because there is no challenge, there is no reason to work hard. And with no reason to work hard, we have all become lazy.

On a hard jungle journey nothing is so important as having a team you can trust.

Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood.

Usually, there is nothing more pleasing that returning to a place where you have endured hardship.

On a harsh expedition, there's no space for anyone who does not intend to finish.

I was becoming addicted to Bombay. There was squalor and poverty, but I had begun to realise my good fortune and would never again forget it.

As a travel writer I've specialized in gritty, fearful destinations, the kind of places that make a reader's hair stick on end.