In 1955, a young TV producer named David Attenborough was approached by six recent graduates from Oxford and Cambridge universities determined to drive the entire length of Eurasia, as it was then known, from London to Singapore. It was the ‘unclimbed Everest of motoring’ – many had tried, none had succeeded. Sensing this time might be different, Attenborough gave The Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition enough film reel to cover their attempt. The 19,000-mile journey completed by Tim Slessor and the team was told in Attenborough’s Travellers’ Tales, and captivated a nation emerging from postwar austerity. Tim’s book, The First Overland, was published shortly after and soon became the Bible of the overlanding religion.
Inspired by Attenborough’s comment fifty years on that it was a journey ‘that I don’t think could be made again today’, Alex made contact with now eighty-six-year-old Tim and together they planned an epic recreation of the original trip, this time from Singapore to London. With their improbable team and the prospect of getting the original ‘Oxford’ – arguably the world’s most famous Land Rover – home to London, their goal was to complete the heroic journey started more than sixty years earlier.
In awe of the unstoppable Tim, and haunted by his own grandfather’s deterioration due to tragedy and then dementia, Alex soon finds himself on the defining trip of his lifetime and discovers how the world has changed for better, and for worse, since the First Overland.
