Having learnt that a new railway in India has made it theoretically possible to travel all the way around the globe in no more than eighty days, Phileas Fogg, a wealthy and fastidious London gentleman, makes a wager of £20,000 with his Reform Club associates that he can achieve this hitherto unheard-of feat, and, accompanied by his French valet Jean Passepartout, boards a train for Dover the very same evening. Pursued on their epic journey by a Scotland Yard policeman who has mistaken Fogg for a bank robber, the intrepid voyagers face a race against time as they traverse a range of exotic and sometimes hazardous landscapes and make use of any and every mode of transport available to them - including elephants - in order to achieve their goal.

A huge commercial success on first publication in 1872, Jules Verne's classic adventure story has been adapted numerous times for the stage and the screen, as well as inspiring many real-life adventurers who have sought to emulate Fogg's audacious odyssey.

Jules Verne was born in Nantes, France, in February 1828. Best known for his adventure novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Around the World in Eighty Days, he is widely considered one of the founding fathers of science fiction. He is the second most translated author in the world, behind Agatha Christie. He died in March 1905.