Extreme Survivors tells the illustrated story of 60 of the most daring escapes, famous shipwrecks, and ultimate survival stories. These are astonishing stories of human endurance and endeavour.

The statistics, descriptions, archive photographs and illustrative maps will give the reader a full understanding of how Joe Simpson crawled to safety in the South American Andean mountains, how Anthony Farrar-Hockley evaded capture after the Battle of Imjin River in the Korean War and how Shackleton’s men survived the incredible journey by boat to South Georgia.

Sixty of the world's greatest survival stories. Here is a selection of them:

Survival Stories

• The Miracle of Stairway B, and how 16 people managed to escape death in the Twin Towers on 9/11.

• The infamous story of the Montevideo rugby union team’s plane crash in the Andes, and their subsequent admission of cannibalism – 2012 is the 40th anniversary of the crash.

Prison Escapes

• Mary Queen of Scots and her escape from a remote Scottish castle.

• Three men pull off what is possibly the only successful escape from Alcatraz.

• Henri Charrière’s (Papillon) five escape attempts from the Devil’s Island penal colony.

Wartime Escapes

• The story of Dith Pran, the Cambodian journalist who escaped the genocide of Pol Pot.

• How the German soldier Cornelius Rost escaped from a labour camp in Siberia and trekked for 3 years to Iran.

Shipwrecks

• Ernest Shackleton’s incredible journey to South Georgia to save every man on an expedition.

• The story of 18 year old William Shotton and how he navigated his ship after most of the crew perished from a mystery disease in 1893.

Hostage Situations

• Naheeda Bi’s ten years in captivity after her notorious tribal kidnapping in Pakistan.

• The dramatic rescue of Íngrid Betancourt by Colombian security forces after six years as a hostage.