SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARDS.

Recovering from a hip replacement operation, and suffering from a mid-life crisis, Iain Gately sets out to catch a tube. This is no London underground train, but rather that evanescent space, beneath the lip of a breaking wave, that every surfer yearns to visit. In all his years of surfing, Iain Gately has never caught one. He realises it is now or never.

His quest takes him to the Atlantic beaches of England's West Country, and to the sandbars and reefs of Galicia and the Canary Island. By turns funny, energetic and inspiring, The Secret Surfer is a tale of self-knowledge through endeavour, a beguiling blend of black humour, adventure and soul searching. Above all, it is a rousing call to all of us not to give up too soon.