Brazilian adventure

It began with an advertisement in the agony column of The Times: ‘Leaving England June, to explore rivers Central Brazil, if possible ascertain fate Colonel Fawcett; abundance game, big and small; exceptional fishing; room two more guns.’ Colonel Fawcett and his son Jack had embarked on a journey in 1925 in search of a supposed lost city and were never seen again. This expedition was too much of a temptation for Peter Fleming, a young journalist with energy and an appetite for adventure. The journey, which begins in a reckless spirit of can-do frivolity, slowly darkens into something very personal and deeply testing ‘for which Rider Haggard might have written the plot and Conrad designed the scenery.’ Fleming recounts it in brilliant prose, leavening the danger with humour and honesty.