In February 2001 twenty-four year old Ellen MacArthur completed the Vendée Globe the world's toughest race. As the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe singlehanded and as the fastest woman to ever have done so her achievement was remarkable. But how had a young woman from landlocked Derbyshire come to find a new home among the waves?

In Taking on the World Ellen tells her story from saving pennies to buy her first boat through sailing around Britain as a teenager to racing the Vendee Globe itself. Enthralling and inspiring in equal measure its shows how courage passion and determination can overcome all obstacles and how one young woman made her dreams come true.

'MacArthur's achievement beggars belief. You don't need to be a sailor to find it inspiring. The lesson of this endearingly honest book is that anything is possible if you put your whole heart and soul into achieving it'
Independent