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.