Author(s): Carl Walrond

Travel

Humans cannot survive more than three minutes without air; more than three hours exposed to extreme low-temperature; more than three days without water; more than three weeks without food. These are the general laws of survival, but some people defy the odds. Using true tales of survival, including high-profile cases such as the case of the sailors lasting at sea for 199 days adrift on the Rose Noelle, the soldiers who died on Ruapehu while a Japanese tramper came off the mountain and asked for a cigarette, and the much-discussed case of Robert Hewitt; Carl Wairond investigates what determines whether a person faced with a live-or-die situation will survive. This gripping read looks at why things happened the way they did; analyses what went right and what went wrong, highlighting the psychology of survival and the mental processes that come into play when people are bewildered, stressed and desperate.