I reserved this book from the library with great expectations, only because I have such regard for the show. I’d hoped that it wasn’t going to be one of those rushed, badly edited jobs that cashes in quickly on its subject’s success. Sadly, my hopes were dashed. I gave up after about thirty pages. I found its style jaunty and confused. I barely knew any of the celebrities it talked about (it’s definitely written with a UK audience in mind). I skipped to the end and gratefully found a chapter devoted to the reason I borrowed the book in the first place—that being a recount of David Wallaim’s swim of the English Channel in July 2006. I found it quite interesting-and sad- how he had to keep his extensive training secret, so as not to jeopardize the integrity of the charity and the project he was swimming for. And how the media concurrently honed in on his weight gain, writing it off as him being lazy when he was being far from it! (He had to put 'padding' on to make the trip). I can’t imagine swimming for 10.5 hours, let alone in the freezing waters off France. Good on him. The fact he did it so much quicker than predicted, clocking in one of the top fifty times ever, must be delicious frosting on the cake. Mmm…cake…