Jack Higgens, author of such successful novels and The Eagle Has Landed, was asked what he would like to have known as a boy. His answer: “That when you get to the top, there’s nothing there.
Tennis star Boris Becker was at the very top of the tennis world—yet he was on the brink of suicide. He said, “I had won Wimbledon twice before, once as the youngest player. I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed … It’s the old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy. I had no inner peace. I was a puppet on a string.
Explorer Penn Haddow said he was still a ‘tortured soul’ despite achieving his ambitions of reaching both Poles. The realisation of his dreams has not quieted the restlessness of his heart.
Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, 21.5.4
