Acclaimed journalist Steve Boggan goes in search of the precious metal, exploring the role it played in the creation of modern America and what it means to us today.

Have you ever imagined giving up your day job and heading for the hills in search of gold? Journalist Steve Boggan decided to do just that when the price of the precious metal scaled dizzying heights in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Clueless, and with neither equipment nor experience, Boggan flew to California and followed in the footsteps of the '49ers', miners who fuelled the original Gold Rush of 1849. Along the way, terrified of bears, bubonic plague and rattlesnakes, he met a cast of colourful characters, including a former Navy Seal who risked his life every day and a man who once went on the run for five years in the mistaken belief that he was wanted by the law. 

In charming and witty prose, gold-fevered Boggan recaptures the excitement, the hopes and disappointments of the hunt, going beyond the story of modern prospectors to give a moving insight into the birth of modern America.

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'A really fascinating, and funny, cautionary tale of the unexpected allure of lives spent in search of "the colour"'.

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'Among his fellow miners [Boggan] found acceptance, comradeship and a wealth of personal stories, many tragic but most concealing a golden glimmer of hope beneath the sadness'.

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'Entertaining, informative and interesting…Carefully researched, funny and inspiring'.

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‘The expectation of the prospecting, the excitement of the panning, the thrill of the find… conveys powerfully the extent to which gold transformed America… moving’ 

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‘A lively narrative history… Boggan is a hugely likeable companion… this book is a romp’

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‘[Boggan] has a wonderful time, respectful of men prepared to give up everything in return for very little, but roguish enough to drop the wink on their ornery, old-fashioned optimism’

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‘Boggan does a good job relating this story’

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"Steve Boggan takes the reader on an exciting adventure and proves that prospecting is as much about digging for humor and hope as it is finding gold."