Under Pressure, Richard Humphreys
Under Pressure, Richard Humphreys
List: $23.99 | Sale: $16.79
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Under Pressure
Living Life and Avoiding Death on a Nuclear Submarine

Author: Richard Humphreys

Narrator: Richard Humphreys

Unabridged: 6 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/02/2020


Synopsis

This is the world of the submariner. This is life under pressure.

What’s it like to spend three months without sunlight, sharing what little space you have with over a hundred fellow crewmen and more firepower than all the bombs dropped in World War II combined? This is the world of the submariner. This is life under pressure.

As a restless and adventurous eighteen-year-old, Richard Humphreys joined the Royal Navy submarine service. For five years during the Cold War, he served on the nuclear sub HMS Resolution. Nothing could have prepared him for life beneath the waves. He existed in a world without natural light, surrounded by 140 other men, all eating the same food, breathing the same air, smelling the same putrid smells and surviving together in some of the most forbidding conditions imaginable.

Based on Humphreys’ firsthand experience, Under Pressure is the candid, visceral and incredibly entertaining account of what it’s like to live, work, sleep and eat—and stay sane—in one of the most extreme man-made environments on the planet.

About Richard Humphreys

Richard Humphreys has been a bookseller for over twenty years. In 2017, he sat on the judging panel of the prestigious Costa Awards for Best Biography. From 1985 to 1990, Richard served in the Royal Navy and spent his career on the Polaris submarines, which carried nuclear ballistic missiles. Under Pressure is his first book. He lives with his family in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Eric_W

Seeking adventure, Humphreys tried to join the French Foreign Legion, but was turned away because he was too young and couldn't get his parents' permission. When he got a little older the Navy seemed a good alternative and the submarine force, as an elite, even more attractive. This is a skeptical a......more

A vivid no holds barred account of life on a Polaris nuclear sub during the Cold War. The author joined the submarine service in 1985 and went on to serve aboard the UK nuclear deterrent for five years at the end of the Cold War. He describes the claustrophobia, disorientation and prolonged periods o......more

Goodreads review by Cav

"There are innumerable fine lines between life and death when operating in one of the most testing environments the world has to offer, where one wrong move can almost instantly bring chaos and disaster..." Under Pressure: Life on a Submarine was an interesting read. As the book's title promises, it......more