Four Mums in a Boat: By Jeanette Benaddi, Helen Butters, Nikki Doeg & Frances Davies Release date: 16th March, 2017 Publisher: HQ List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £11.89 You Save: £5.1 (30%) Buy Now

One of sport’s most compelling characteristics is the opportunity it affords fans and spectators alike to gaze in awe at the extraordinary exploits and athletic prowess of people like Mo Farah, Laura Trott, Jason Kenny, Helen Glover and a host of others. What, we wonder, drives these people to such incredible heights, to smash world records, to become so engrossed in their sport that that is their sole focus? Most of us live what might be called more cluttered lives in which we’re constantly juggling family or work commitments, or else mindful of the mortgage or that larger-than-average electricity bill. There’s very little opportunity to drop everything and become a world champion. Indeed, our admiration is probably reinforced by the certain knowledge that we could never emulate elite sportsmen and women. Every so often, however, our admiration for unexpected sporting achievement motivates us to try and match at least some of it, which is why Four Mums in a Boat is such an inspirational read. The story of four women in their forties and fifties, who went from meeting at their local rowing club each Saturday morning in order to get some exercise while enjoying a laugh and a gossip, to rowing the Atlantic in record time offers a different form of sporting inspiration. None of the four ladies were, by their own admission, natural athletes, but goodness, they’re determined. You sense their individual will to succeed is underpinned by being part of a team and an absolute desire not to let their team-mates down. Many of us, fuelled by too much red wine, have occasionally considered doing something crazy, only for the notion to evaporate in the time it takes for the following day’s hangover to disappear. Not this quartet. While the suggestion that four working mothers could row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic must have sounded a little unhinged when first mooted, it’s clear that all four immediately bought into the idea. Four Mums is a life-affirming read for it features ordinary people committing to and then embarking on a crazy adventure, “not to escape life, but for life not to escape them.” Wouldn’t it be great to emulate them? After reading this, you’re likely to be inspired to try.