Gold Fever: One Man's Adventures on the Trail of the Modern Gold Rush

Description

Gold has entranced us for millennia - many have gone wild in their search for it, risking their lives for the dream of unimaginable wealth. After the Financial Crisis, the price of gold reached peaks never seen in history. All over the world, but particularly in the United States, people with no experience of prospecting began shopping for shovels, pickaxes, gold pans, tents, generators, and all manner of equipment they had no idea how to use. Then off they went mining. In 2013, Steve Boggan decided he wanted a piece of the action, flying to San Francisco in a quest to understand the allure of the metal and maybe even find some for himself too. Paralleling present-day adventures full of colourful characters with a journey back in time to the original gold rush, Gold Fever is not only a hugely entertaining travelogue, it is also a moving insight into a key period in the creation of modern America.

Steve Boggan has been a journalist for more than thirty years. A former Chief Reporter with The Independent, he has also written extensively for The Times, The Guardian, The London Evening Standard and the Daily Mail . His first book was Follow the Money: A Month in the Life of a Ten-Dollar Bill. He lives in London.

'Entertaining, informative and interesting...Carefully researched, funny and inspiring'. * The Sun * 'Among his fellow miners [Boggan] found acceptance, comradeship and a wealth of personal stories, many tragic but most concealing a golden glimmer of hope beneath the sadness'. * Daily Mail * 'A really fascinating, and funny, cautionary tale of the unexpected allure of lives spent in search of "the colour"'. * World Travel Guide * 'The expectation of the prospecting, the excitement of the panning, the thrill of the find... conveys powerfully the extent to which gold transformed America... moving' * Daily Telegraph * 'A lively narrative history... Boggan is a hugely likeable companion... this book is a romp' * Spectator * '[Boggan] has a wonderful time, respectful of men prepared to give up everything in return for very little, but roguish enough to drop the wink on their ornery, old-fashioned optimism' * Saga * 'A perfect mixture of travelogue, history and down and dirty experience, leavened by rich veins of humour and pathos. A gem, or should I say a nugget.' -- Mick Conefrey - author of Everest 1953 'Terrific. Pack your bag, grab your pick, and set out with master storyteller, Steve Boggan, for a trip in this highly original travelogue.' -- Daniel Klein - Sunday Times bestselling author of Travels with Epicurus 'Gold Fever is a wonderful mix of history, journalism and good old-fashioned adventure. It is this last aspect that really lends the book a unique appeal; Boggan is not afraid to get his hands dirty, and he shares his experiences and findings with great depth, humour and charisma.' -- Leon McCarron, author of The Road Headed West: A Cycling Journey Through North America 'A well-crafted story with heady fast-forward momentum. A dogged investigator's obsessive quest for Californian gold, and the backstory of the gold fields.' -- Iain Sinclair, author of London Orbital 'Boggan does a good job relating this story' * Independent * "Steve Boggan takes the reader on an exciting adventure and proves that prospecting is as much about digging for humor and hope as it is finding gold." * Jennifer Pharr Davis, author of Becoming Odyssa: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail *