Clara’s Verdict
I am not a cycling person. I have never ridden more than a few miles in a single session, and the concept of two hundred miles a day for seventy-eight consecutive days is one my body refuses to process as a real thing. And yet Around the World in 80 Days by Mark Beaumont had me gripped from the first chapter to the last. Beaumont is not just an exceptional endurance athlete; he is a thoughtful and self-aware writer who understands that records are not interesting in themselves — the interesting thing is the psychology of the person attempting them. He reads his own book with a Scotsman’s no-nonsense directness, and the result is one of the finest adventure memoirs I have heard in audio form. At nearly seventeen hours, it covers not just the ride but the years of planning, the near-disasters, and the quiet cost of living at the absolute limit of human capacity.
About the Audiobook
On 18 September 2017, Beaumont cycled through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 78 days, 14 hours and 40 minutes after setting out on the same spot. He had covered more than 18,000 miles, cycling through Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China, Australia, New Zealand and North America, averaging over 200 miles per day. He smashed two Guinness World Records and beat the previous record by an astonishing 45 days.
What makes this account exceptional is Beaumont’s honesty about the full complexity of the attempt. He covers the meticulous logistical planning in detail — the route choices, the team structure, the financial constraints, the contingency thinking — and is candid about the moments where everything nearly fell apart. He is thoughtful about the relationship between physical and mental endurance, about the way extreme fatigue changes perception and decision-making, and about what it costs, personally and relationally, to pursue records at this level. The book was inspired by Jules Verne’s classic novel, and Beaumont acknowledges the literary debt with grace. Published by Penguin Audio in May 2019.
The Narration
Beaumont reads his own book with the straightforward delivery of a man who has spent years giving talks about his expeditions — clear, unadorned, occasionally laconic in the way of someone accustomed to understatement. His Scottish accent adds a certain flavour without ever becoming a barrier. He is most effective in the passages describing the actual daily grind of the ride: the relentless kilometres, the aching muscles, the small triumphs and disappointments. He is slightly less comfortable in the more reflective passages, but the overall effect is engaging and, crucially, authentic. You believe he was there because he sounds exactly like someone who was.
The book’s structure also rewards those with an interest in the logistics of elite endurance: Beaumont is remarkably transparent about route planning, the caloric mathematics of cycling 200 miles per day, the team dynamics that made the record possible, and the near-disasters — mechanical, navigational, medical — that came close to ending the attempt at multiple points. For anyone who has ever been curious about what actually goes into a record-breaking expedition beyond the headlines, the level of detail here is exceptional and genuinely fascinating.
What Readers Say
Around the World in 80 Days holds a 4.6 from 806 Audible UK reviews — an unusually high review count that speaks to the breadth of its appeal. « A great read about an endurance world record attempt with all the accompanying meticulous planning detail, » wrote one cyclist who found Beaumont’s achievement « phenomenal. » Another noted that the book « explains what the videos couldn’t » — revealing the planning stages, the importance of the team, and « the mental and physical task of undertaking this huge feat. » A third described Beaumont as making readers feel the demands of the challenge directly: « you have the sensation of seeing the world through his eyes. » A dissenting note appeared in a review that found Beaumont occasionally too restrained — holding back feelings and opinions — but still awarded four stars.
Who Should Listen?
Adventure memoir readers, cyclists, endurance sport enthusiasts, and anyone who has ever found themselves wondering what human beings are capable of will love this. It works equally well for sports fans and for general readers with no interest in cycling: this is fundamentally a book about willpower, preparation and the mental architecture required to do something apparently impossible. Fans of Eddie Izzard’s marathon memoir, Ranulph Fiennes or Bear Grylls will find something different here — more methodical, less theatrical — and probably more honest as a result. Listen to Around the World in 80 Days on Audible UK.
