National treasure and television pioneer Anneka Rice has had an action-packed career jumping out of helicopters, racing against the clock on Challenge Anneka and inspiring millions with her boundless energy and much-loved jumpsuits. But the daring spirit on screen was forged in a very different kind of challenge.

In this candid memoir, Anneka opens up for the first time about the crucible of her unusual childhood, revealing how the crippling loneliness she felt as a child and the teenage years she spent bringing up her baby sister sparked the fierce resilience that would later define her.

With her trademark warmth and wit, she shares the vibrant, transformative possibilities that emerged from her arrival, aged nineteen, in Hong Kong on a one-way ticket, knowing no one, and describes the epiphanous moment in a refugee camp in Kowloon that taught her to imagine a life far beyond the one she had left behind.

Full of heart, humour and hard-won wisdom, this is an astonishing story of adventure and survival, of personal battles and public triumphs. It's a manual on how to reinvent yourself, throw caution to the wind and take the path full of jeopardy. It's mad, bad and dangerous – and should come with a warning: don't try this at home.