Paul Rodgers

Paul Rodgers’ latest book, Sailing to Purgatory, ends with perhaps one of the greatest shock climaxes of a true-life story.

Paul turned from Fleet Street journalism to the sea after sailing around the world to become a singlehanded Cape Horner, winning a Guinness Book of Records speed record along the way. He went to nautical college and graduated as a Department of Trade Commercial Yachtmaster.

He sailed the oceans professionally for many years, finally retiring with an 8,000 mile singlehanded voyage across the Atlantic and down through the Doldrums to the South Atlantic, through the Roaring Forties, into the Southern Ocean, landing finally in Cape Town.

A concert pianist he met along the way joined him on land and his swallowing-the-anchor life looked wonderful. With his new fiancée, he returned to the UK to look after his late lamb daughter during the school holidays.

They visited friends in Hampshire, and were ambushed by the former customs department. Paul’s professional visiting card was among the possessions of a member of an alleged London gang. Paul was tried with the gang in the longest criminal trial in England. It was held in camera. Although evidence showed he came no closer to UK than 1,100 miles, he was found guilty by a misled jury. He was sentenced to 19 years, two years longer than the terrorist in the Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people.

Sailing to Purgatory tells of that extraordinary lone voyage, a sort of travelogue confessional of all that happened along the way. Could the solo oceanic voyage in a stripped-out racing boat really have carried around £70 million of illegal cargo? You be the judge.

Paul is a life member of the Royal Yachting Association, a former member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club. He is an honours graduate of Literature.

Sailing to Purgatory is his fourth book and has won high praise in sailing magazines and on the web. A book of his survival ordeal in a shark-harassed liferaft near the Roaring Forties is close to publication and may well become a feature film.