Benedict Allen

An account of the explorer, Benedict Allen's journey through Siberia and the remote landscape of Mongolia, and across the Gobi Desert to the border with China. The book ties in with the broadcast of a series of six documentaries following the journey on BBC2 in Autumn 1998.

A Journey Through Mongolia

Edge of Blue Heaven

Anna McNuff

Ed Stafford

Lois Pryce

George Mahood

Levison Wood

Sarah Outen

Jamie McDonald

Al Humphreys

Fearghal O'Nuallain

Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer Travel opens our minds to the world; it helps us to embrace risk and uncertainty, overcome challenges and understand the people we meet and the places we visit. But what happens when we arrive home? How do our experiences shape us? The Kindness of Strangers explores what it means to be vulnerable and to be helped by someone we've never met before. Someone who could have walked past, but chose not to. This is a collection of stories by accomplished travellers and adventurous souls like Sarah Outen, Benedict Allen, Ed Stafford and Al Humphreys, who have completed daring journeys through challenging terrain, adventuring from the Calais Jungle to the Amazon, from Land’s End to the Gobi Desert, from New Guinea to Iran and many other places in between. Each has a story to tell of a time when they were vulnerable, when they were in need and a kind stranger came to their rescue. These are stories that make our hearts grow, stories that will restore our faith in the world and remind us that, despite what the media says, the world isn't a scary place – rather, it is filled with Kind Strangers just like us. All royalties go directly to fund Oxfam’s work with refugees.

Travel Stories That Make Your Heart Grow

The Kindness of Strangers

A Journey Through the Interior of New Guinea and Australia

The Proving Grounds

What does it mean to be an explorer in the twenty-first century? Explorer is the story of what first led Benedict Allen to head for the farthest reaches of our planet – at a time when there were still valleys and ranges known only to the remote communities who inhabited them. It is also the story of why, thirty years later, he is still exploring. It’s the story of a journey back to a clouded mountain in New Guinea to find a man called Korsai who had once been a friend, and to fulfil a promise made as young men. It is also a story of what it is to be ‘lost’ and ‘found’. Honest, sensitive and packed with insight, in Explorer Allen considers the lessons he has learnt from his numerous expeditions – most importantly, from the communities he has encountered and that he has spent so much of his life immersed in. ‘To me personally, exploration isn't about planting flags, conquering Nature, or going somewhere in order to make a mark – it's about the opposite. It's about opening yourself up, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, and letting the place and people make their mark on you.’

The Quest for Adventure and the Great Unknown

Explorer

What does it feel like to walk off the edge of a map? To emerge dazed, dying yet triumphant, from the Amazon? Benedict Allen's anthology of human exploration ranges across various terrains - hot and cold deserts, mountains and plains, jungles and high seas - and presents the words of those who, through the centuries - be they Vikings or missionaries, conquistadors or botanists - have set off into 'the unknown'.'Immaculately edited and shrewdly considered . . . a hugely readable compendium.' Independent on Sunday'A monumental feat of compilation and editing, and will satisfy every armchair traveller.' Literary Review'A generous, handsome volume, that will provide hours upon hours of absorption and revelation.' The Times

An Anthology of Worlds Revealed by Explorers Through the Ages

The Faber Book of Exploration

A Life Spent in Search of Adventure

The author, travelling through the lands between the Orinoco and the Amazon, is taught survival techniques by the Indians, who later plot to kill him. In fleeing for his life he finds out whether he has learnt enough.

A Journey to the Heart of the Amazon Jungle

Mad White Giant

The author describes his experiences on an expedition through the region of the Amazon River and discusses the area's Indian tribes

An Englishman's Trek Through the Amazon Jungle

Who Goes Out in the Midday Sun?

Benedict Allen travelled through Papua New Guinea in search of a tribe that would let him participate in an initiation ceremony into manhood. He was finally admitted to the ceremonies of the Sepik tribe, whose totemic god is the crocodile. With fifteen other young males, Allen was secluded from the village in a large nest-like enclosure. Crocodile marks were carved onto their bodies with sharpened bamboo. Grey mud was applied to stop the blood-flow from their wounds, and they were beaten every day for six weeks. This book is the story of Allen's initiation experiences - a tale of love, community through shared pain and of sudden death.

A Journey Inside New Guinea

Into the Crocodile Nest

Why do explorers put themselves in dangerous situations? And, once the worst possible situation occurs, how do they find the resources to survive? In answering these questions, Benedict Allen weaves a series of tales from his own experience as well as that of other explorers including Columbus, Cortez, Scott, Shakelton, Stanley, Livingstone and their modern counterparts: Joe Simpson and Ranulf Fiennes.

Benedict Allen

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