A take-no-prisoners approach to life has seen Paul Carter heading to some of the world's most remote, wild and dangerous places as a contractor in the oil business. Amazingly, he's survived (so far) to tell these stories from the edge of civilization. He has been shot at, hijacked and held hostage; almost died of dysentery in Asia and toothache in Russia; watched a Texan lose his mind in the jungles of Asia; lost a lot of money backing a scorpion against a mouse in a fight to the death, and been served cocktails by an orangutan on an ocean freighter. And that's just his day job.

Taking postings in some of the world's wildest and most remote regions, not to mention some of the roughest rigs on the planet, Paul has worked, got into trouble, and been given serious talkings to, in locations as far-flung as the North Sea, Middle East, Borneo and Tunisia, as exotic as Sumatra, Vietnam and Thailand, and as flat-out dangerous as Columbia, Nigeria and Russia, with some of the maddest, baddest and strangest people you could ever hope not to meet.

"A romper-stomper of the world's oil rigs. Highly enjoyable" - Herald

"Full of colourful stories and anecdotes accumulated over almost two decades working the oil rigs." - TNT Magazine

"A Boy's Own yarn from the front line of the oil industry." - Men's Style

"Not so much a thriller as a driller, Don't Tell Mum is our tip for Bloke's Book of the Year" - Sunday Telegraph

"A kind of modern-day Indiana Jones" - Sunday Tasmanian