Far Horizons
Frank Gardner
£18.99 Hard Cover
Reading Gardner’s book on a summer’s afternoon in London transported me to exotic destinations far from the capital’s blurred, frenzied streets. Like most of the city’s inhabitants at this time of year, I wanted to be somewhere else. But sitting back with Far Horizons made for a good alternative form of escapism.
Equally, writing this book was likely also escapism on the author’s behalf. Frank Gardner is the BBC’s security correspondent and has worked for the corporation since 1995. Gardner specializes in the Middle East, and it was there, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, doing what he loved most, that his life changed forever. He was left for dead at the roadside after Al-Qaeda gunmen fired six shots into his body. That was 2004, aged 42, he lay in a hospital bed to learn that he would never walk again as some of the bullets had passed through his spinal nerves. Now Frank Gardner reports and travels in a wheelchair.
But this is not what the book is about.
The book is not intended to dwell on the attack in Riyadh, previously covered in his first book, Blood and Sand. The author mentions it almost in passing and then moves on only to dedicate the final few chapters to travel post injury. In giving the book its title, Gardner shows how, despite coming to grips with limited mobility, he has certainly not given up on travel and is setting his sights far beyond London’s BBC newsroom.
There is a pleasing symmetry to events before and after the attack. Gardner is determined that even without the use of his legs he will continue to explore the world as he did before. In all his optimism for life Gardner describes the incredible trips he has undertaken since becoming a paraplegic. Scuba diving, quad biking, rappelling—you name it, he’s done it. This is a life story not of regret but enthusiasm for the future.
Far Horizons is a defiant affirmation that Gardner will not allow himself to be defined by what happened that awful day. As well as being an accomplished journalist, Frank Gardner is first and foremost an intrepid traveler. From the moment he left school he traveled independently to far-flung places in search of adventure. Taken from entries in his travel journal, Far Horizons relives Gardner’s wild escapades around the world. An antidote to the reality of his disability, Gardner muses of his days spent as a young, reckless globetrotter, taking the reader from the steely cold of Finland to the dripping rainforests of Ecuador.
The book chronologically tracks Gardner’s life from the age of sixteen to the present. Each chapter starts in a different location to the last; the anecdotes are fast-paced and short-lived. On occasion your head spins as Gardner travels from one continent to the next in the space of a few pages.
It is fascinating to see the accumulation of experience that has made him the person he is today. Having chosen to study Arabic at university Gardner went on to work in the Gulf as an investment banker, only to join the BBC in his thirties. Despite having joined the BBC later in his career it is evident that Gardner was destined for journalism. In 1985 Gardner bargained a free stay at a plush hotel in Istanbul in exchange for giving it a write-up in a travel magazine. With pen and paper in hand and a camera slung round his neck, reporting in the field has always been his dream job.
What marks Gardner out from the industry’s other big names is his intimate understanding of the Middle East and its people. His knowledge of Arabic has helped him to really get under the skin of this often misunderstood part of the world. Gardner’s memoirs are a refreshing alternative narrative to the well-versed negative Western discourse on the region. His travel accounts are a testimony to the relationship he has forged with the Arab world and tell a tale of the hospitality and generosity he encounters along the way.
Gardner’s attention to detail and quick wit make this book a joy to read. You can almost taste the sticky air of the jungle and recoil at the thought of cow’s tongue in a Tokyo diner. Gardner’s traveling tales conjure up a sharp image of freedom and a happy-go-lucky attitude that is contagious. Far Horizons brings out the inner traveler in everyone.
Having watched Frank Gardner on the 6 p.m. news reporting on the often depressing nature of events in the Middle East, it came as a pleasant surprise to discover a very different individual, someone who is spontaneous, defiant and even a little mischievous. Far Horizons is an uncensored and honest account with spades of personality.
Gardner’s book is both a therapy for the reader and writer. Far Horizons provides an escape from the mundane in everyday life and does the same for the author in putting his travel experiences onto paper. Yet, ultimately the book is not about the past but the future. The author revels in fond memories to propel himself forward in continuing to live his life as he did before. Hopefully we can expect to read another of Gardner’s books in a few years time to see how he has continued to set his sights on far horizons.
