Mad Dogs and Englishmen: An Expedition Round My Family Book

Discover Sir Ranulph Twistelton-Wykham-Fiennes's personal expedition to trace his extraordinary family through the twists and turns of history. From Charlemagne -- himself a direct ancestor of the author -- to the count who very nearly persuaded William the Conqueror to retreat at Hastings many members of this unique clan have lived close to the nerve centre of the ruler of their day. They number in their ranks a murderer a wife poisoner a poacher England's greatest female traveller of the 17th century and an extortionist Lord High Treasurer teen cousins who eloped a noble lord hanged for manslaughter another hanged for adultery with the King's wife and many who as admirals or major-generals won famous battles. The Fiennes' behind Cromwell provided the castle in which the Parliamentarians made their first secret moves the same building in which twenty-one successive generations of the family have lived for 600 unbroken years. One Fiennes had his head cut off by the London mob and stuck on Tower Bridge another led the First Crusade that captured Jerusalem ...And that is just a taster.Ranulph Fiennes tells the story of his unconventional exceptional family and reveals the ingredients for the man described by the Guinness Book of Records as 'the world's greatest living explorer'.