In 1992, John Beattie set out to sail around the world. Joined at times by an assortment of exotic characters - including a parrot called Hamish and the former Beirut hostage Brian Keenan - the joys and travails of his journey are depicted with complete honesty. But be it a storm at sea, a single-handed Atlantic crossing, or a near shipwreck in an uncharted jungle river, his humour and fortitude shine through.

A compelling travelogue, a voyage of the spirit and a love story, The Breath of Angels is also a tale which might never have been told but for one chance-in-a-million encounter. Once day at dawn, a man lay dying of thirst in an open boat that had been swept out to sea - his partner had already died in his arms. In the gloom of the early morning light he sees a tiny fleck of white on the distant horizon. The Warrior Queen is homeward bound from Venezuela and the dying man has one last slender chance of life . . .