Author: Keen, Teddy

Interest age: from c 7 years

Published on 27 March 2025 by Quarto Publishing PLC (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books) in the United Kingdom as part of ‘The Unknown Adventurer’ series.

Paperback | 192 pages
270 x 212 x 18 | 794g

Praise forThe Lost Book of Adventure:Bear Grylls — ‘Packed FULL of adventures’The Guardian — A clarion call to the child explorer […]a spectacular immersion in the life of the wild.’Daily Express– Exquisitely illustrated […] children will treasure it for years to come.’A facsimile edition of the tattered notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer, this love letter to the wild details everything you need to know about how to live and thrive in nature, from the principles of treehouse building to wilderness first aid. Now in a new paperback edition, this book is ready for you to take on your next adventure.

If you are reading this, it means my notebooks have been found. I am leaving them here at camp for safekeeping along with a few other belongings that I won’t be taking with me. The notebooks are a lifetime’s worth of knowledge, which I’m passing on the you.

So reads an excerpt from the weatherworn letter discovered by nature enthusiast Teddy Keen on a recent trip to the Amazon, along with sketchbooks filled with details of extraordinary adventures and escapades, expedition adviceand survival methods, annotated with captivating coloured-pencil drawings. It is thought that the sketchbooks were created for two young relatives of the author. Drawing on Teddy’s knowledge of the outdoors, the pages of the sketchbooks have been carefully transcribed for young readers, as they were originally intended.

You’ll be transported by riveting adventure tales from around the globe, like being dragged off by a hyena in Botswana, surviving a Saharan dust storm, being woken by an intrepid emperor penguin in Antarctica and coming face-to-face with a venomous bushmaster (one of the most dangerous snakes on the planet) all told in lyrical prose and illustrations that wonder at the mysterious beauty of the wild.

Having inspired the adventurous spirit in you, the Unknown Adventurer encourages you to set out on your own adventure with information on wild camping, rafting, exploration, and shelters and dens, plus tips on first aid and tying knots. Expert instructions on wilderness basics, like building a fire, what to do if you get lost, and how to build various types of shelters are accompanied by more specific skills culled from many years of experience, like baking campfire bread, creating a toothbrush from a twig, making a suture from soldier ants and even how to pan for gold.

Ahead of the release of the next book in the series, The Lost Book of Undersea Adventure, delve into the critically-acclaimed first book from the Unknown Adventurer, now in a new paperback edition. Inside is a treasure trove of knowledge that will ignite the spirit of adventure in readers young and old.

REMEMBER: be good, be adventurous and look after your parents.