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Paddle: A long way around Ireland
 
 

Paddle: A long way around Ireland [Kindle Edition]

Jasper Winn
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

Print List Price: £8.99
Kindle Price: £3.95 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
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Kindle Edition £3.95  
Paperback £6.74  


Product Description

Review

'A fantastic voyage. Mad, inspiring, funny and a great read.' --Nick Crane

'A gripping account...at turns frightening, comic, uplifting. Whether you're a paddler or not, don't miss it.' --Outsider

'I really enjoyed Paddle - a genuine adventure story with nothing gimmicky and dangers understated.' --Dervla Murphy

'A highly entertaining journey ... Winn combines the hair-raising days on the sea with nights in traditional pubs.' --Sunday Times

Product Description

One summer, writer and musician, Jasper Winn set himself an extraordinary task. He would kayak the whole way round Ireland -- a thousand miles -- camping on remote headlands and islands, carousing in bars and paddling clockwise until he got back where he started. But in the worst Irish summer in living memory the pleasures of idling among seals, fulmars and fishing boats soon gave way to heroic struggles through storm-tossed seas ... and lock-ins playing music in coastal pubs. Circling the country where he grew up, Jasper reflects on life at the very fringes of Ireland, the nature and lore of its seas, and his own eccentric upbringing -- sprung from school at age ten and left free to explore the countryside and its traditional life.
Charming, quietly epic, and with an irresistible undertow of wit, Paddle is a low-tech adventure that captures the sheer joy of a misty morning on Ireland's coast. As the sun breaks through, you'll be longing to set off in his wake. Jasper Winn grew up in West Cork, where he left school at age ten and educated himself by reading, riding horses, learning rural skills and playing music. It was an upbringing that has shaped a lifetime of travel and writing.
He has journeyed across the Atlas with nomadic Berbers, canoed along the Danube, and often crosses countries on horseback. He was story consultant on the IMAX film, Ride Around the World, about the world's horse cultures. Paddle is his first book.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 1805 KB
  • Print Length: 340 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0956003885
  • Publisher: Sort Of (26 May 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0956003885
  • ISBN-13: 978-0956003881
  • ASIN: B006WB7FZO
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Not Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #36,158 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars a cracking tale of human spirit 29 May 2011
Format:Paperback
what a terrific book this is. The jaunty cover might lead you to think it's one of those light-hearted travel pieces in the style of Tony Hawks, and indeed there are several laugh out loud sections and a continual self-deprecating humour. But it balances amusing anecdote and pageturning readability with a number of deeper, more enduring threads that run throughout the narrative. Winn's life-long relationship with Ireland , the merits of a solo, sometime lonely endeavour, versus the fleeting but vital company of strangers (mostly in coastal pubs), the truths and beauties of the natural world (he's excellent on birds and wildlife), the need to live in the moment (or else die) versus the frivolous necessities of recording the audio, video, written data, without which we wouldn't have this book. Just the right balance is truck between light and dark, and adds up to the best kind of travel book. That takes you on a ride and teaches you stuff, but also makes you reflect and stare to the further horizon
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A brave, witty, mesmerising book. 20 May 2011
By Tommo
Format:Paperback
An amazing read. I'm not a particular kayaking enthusiast but I loved the pace and wit of this book. Jasper's prose is mesmerising. I was out there in spirit, battling the waves with him and enjoying the rousing atmosphere of the lock-ins. But there were also poignant moments,a very honest turn of the mid-life hourglass - when Win realises he can no longer blithely chat up more youthful fellow travellers, or assume his body will still stand up to the derring do adventure - which somehow makes this utterly human and therfore more heroic. Paddle has given me plenty to think of when I gaze out at the sea this summer.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars New fan! 7 Jun 2011
Format:Paperback
I heard Jasper Winn on BBC R4's `Excess Baggage' on Saturday and have just finished his book. I agree with these reviews whole-heartedly! Like Tommo I am not a natural kayak enthusiast but this is more about kayaking as a mode of transport than the memoirs of a canoe fanatic...and happily the author spends as much time adventuring ashore and making music in pubs as afloat at sea. `Paddle' is a beautifully crafted book, brilliantly written and utterly engrossing. I much look forward to reading about his next adventure...!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Great trip around Ireland
I found the first chapter a bit choppy but after that it slid smoothly into being well written, funny, dramatic, interesting and moving. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Felix Power
5.0 out of 5 stars fun but firm
a brilliantt,honest down to earth write,but gripping and lofty at times due to the dangerous solo challenge
he undertook at a low unfit period of his life!!
Published 4 months ago by JJ
5.0 out of 5 stars A very different book
I really enjoyed this account of a kayak journey around Ireland. Even for a landlubber like me the account of the journey felt real and I felt part of the fears and fun which were... Read more
Published 8 months ago by B. Palmer
3.0 out of 5 stars A brave paddle round Ireland
Paddle takes the reader on a (despite the weather conditions) fairly relaxed journey around Ireland. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Bridport Beth
5.0 out of 5 stars great travel and kayaking read
Really enjoyed reading this account of paddle around Ireland. No doubt he underplays his initial experience, as it's clearly a major excursion. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Lloyd Bower
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping and a bit stressful to read
I really enjoyed this account of Jasper Winn's major undertaking to paddle around Ireland. He writes with an easy style and quickly adopts the persona of the ill-prepared blagger. Read more
Published 15 months ago by CelticKayaker
5.0 out of 5 stars So inspiring
Such a great read. Jasper's journey is captured so well in his writing and his love for new things and the countryside is evident. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Lou0404
5.0 out of 5 stars Great paddling read !
Really excellent book if you like to be out sea kayaking, first half of the journey was really excellent, little rushed in second half where N Ireland back to Cork seemed to be... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Paul Alexander
4.0 out of 5 stars Adventure and Humor
As a some-time kayaker in the ocean, I can totally relate to this account of navigating the seas and inlets and estuaries and islands off the coast of Ireland. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Dirk from Delaware
5.0 out of 5 stars Cracking read !
To me this encapsulates what good travel writing is about. Jasper comes across as human and honest with himself and subsequently the reader. Read more
Published 19 months ago by C. Redwood
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