Groundrush by Simon Jakeman
Simon Jakeman, once a London building-site worker, now spends his time falling through the sky at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, with a parachute for safe landing - provided the chute opens. Fear doesn't seem to have been any more of a problem to him than vertigo, as he went on to perform ever more daring jumps after the bodies of his two companions smashed against the rocks on the way down Cheddar Gorge. His subsequent exploits include leaping, in the dark, from a 1000-foot television mast and from the 39th floor of a Barbican tower block. This is Jakeman's story - an exploration of the relationship between risk and fear, of adrenaline addiction, and of a quest for blissful freedom.