Benedict Allen

Benedict Allen is best known for making television history by being the first to record his arduous and treacherous exploits without a TV-crew. By single-handedly capturing his experiences on film he has created groundbreaking, spontaneous and authentic programming. Benedict’s films include Birds of Paradise – The Ultimate Quest, The Skeleton Coast, The Edge of Blue Heaven, The Bones of Colonel Fawcett, Last of the Medicine Men and Ice Dogs for BBC and Expedition Africa for the History Channel. As an accomplished author he has published many books including The Faber Book of Exploration and Into the Abyss.

Unlike most adventurers today, Benedict does not carry GPS, phone or other types of backup, but survives by drawing on the skills he has learnt from indigenous peoples and pushing human endurance to its limit. He is the only non-tribesman to have undergone the harshest male initiation ceremony in the world (to make him 'a man as strong as a crocodile') in which he was beaten for six weeks and left permanently scarred on his chest and back.

He is the only person to have crossed the Amazon Basin, and to have trained a dog team to take them 1000 miles across Siberia during the worst winter in living memory. He has been shot at, had to stitch-up his own wounds (without an anaesthetic!), has been left by guides to die and has even had to eat his own dog to stay alive.

In 2013 Benedict Allen was included in the Daily Telegraph's list of Britain's "Great Explorers" - the only other living adventurer being Sir Ranulph Fiennes. His presenting work includes the major eight-part reality epic Exhibition on Africa (2009)for the History Channel, Unbreakable (2008)for Channel Five, and Travellers' Century (2008) for BBC4. His six BBC series include Skeleton Coast, Edge of Blue Heaven and Ice Dogs. Last year Benedict presented Adventures for Boys: The Lost World of Ryder Haggard, and was an expert contributor for BBC2's Extreme Dreams.

Benedict attracted global media attention when he encountered a string of devastating obstacles following an expedition with his indigenous friends into the heart of Papua New Guinea. Having tackled the notorious Central Range, Benedict contracted both malaria and dengue fever and then became trapped in a dense jungle where local communities were at war. A multi-national search-and-rescue mission was launched – and Benedict was at last extracted by helicopter. This adventure is the basis of his book, Explorer: The Quest for Adventure and the Great Unknown.

Often described as television's most fearless man, Benedict Allen is an extremely popular after-dinner and motivational speaker. His exceptional talent for applying his pioneering expeditions to the corporate 'jungle' ensures an enthralling, entertaining and inspirational experience for any size of audience.

Ultimate Explorer
Adventurer-explorer Benedict Allen tells the whole unvarnished truth of his solo expedition to Papua New Guinea, where he visited a community he had befriended thirty years earlier – when he hit the headlines after failing to turn up for a flight to Hong Kong, prompting his friends and family, and eventually the world media, to become concerned for his wellbeing.

Surviving the corporate Jungle
Themes: Team work, thriving in a crisis, managing risk, adapting to changing environments.

Benedict Allen inspires and invigorates all types of business audiences by skilfully translating his 'against the odds' survival for the global corporate 'jungle'. His ability to successfully integrate himself into exotic and alien cultures motivates those in commercial cultures and provides the impetus to achieve targets.

His audiences in venues as diverse as Geneva, Nice, New Jersey and London include IBM, The Prudential Building Society, GlaxoSmithKline, The Halifax, M&G Investment, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland, HSBC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Teva Pharmaceuticals, TransFin, Unum Provident, GLP Care, Proctor & Gamble, Investec, BT, Aon, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.

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Clients often ask about purchasing books for giveaways and delegate packs. Below you’ll find a selection of products by Benedict Allen. Click the images to view on Amazon's website. For bulk orders, please speak with your Booking Agent.