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Biography

Motivational Speaker - Benedict Allen

Benedict Allen was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, the son of a test pilot, and read Environmental Science at the University of East Anglia - where he crammed three expeditions (to a volcano in Costa Rica, remote forest in Brunei and a glacier in Iceland) into his final year. There then followed a stint at the University of Aberdeen, where he tried to work out how to cross perhaps the remotest forest on earth, which lay between the mouth of the Orinoco to the mouth of the Amazon.

The idea he developed became the cornerstone for all his future ventures: instead of raising money through sponsorship back home, he would immerse himself among indigenous people and hope for their assistance.

Having worked in a warehouse for sufficient basic funds, he arrived in South America – and that same year, 1983, he and a string of locals pulled off that objective, notably a precarious 600 mile dash through the forest by foot and canoe. It was a remarkable feat - and it almost cost him his life. He walked out of the forest alone and with two sorts of malaria - having been attacked by gold miners, fled and eventually eaten his dog to survive.

Allen’s first book, Mad White Giant, part of a planned quartet, followed from that experience – as did his decision now to submerge himself among some of the remotest people on earth to help understand the forest that had so nearly killed him.

In Irian Jaya, he led a band of remote people called the Momwina through dense forest to make first contact with their neighbours the Obini. This resulted in the second book Into The Crocodile’s Nest.

 A string of expeditions followed, with the Iban of Borneo, Mentawai of Sumatra - where Allen memorably had to stitch up his chest with his boot-mending kit (Hunting the Gugu) - and various peoples in New Guinea and the Gibson Desert, Allen arriving in Australia on one occasion by seafaring canoe, having become marooned while crossing the treacherous Torres Strait (The Proving Grounds).

With training from the Matses “Indians” he went on to cross the whole of the Amazon Basin, a 3,500 mile journey of almost eight months; during this he broke three ribs falling off a horse and on Columbia’s Putumayo River was shot at by assassins belonging to the drug baron Pablo Escobar. (Through Jaguar Eyes).

His first programme, Raiders of the Lost Lake, gained the highest viewing figures in the history of the Video Diary strand.

Benedict Allen also presented Mombasa to the Mountains of the Moon, for the prestigious Great Railway Journeys BBC/PBS TV series. Also for the BBC he filmed – with the help of producer Ruhi Hamid – The Bone of Colonel Fawcett, about his search for the missing 1920s explorer in the Mato Grosso.

In 2001, Benedict completed a 1000 kilometre trek through the Russian Arctic with a dog team in the “worst winter in living memory” - this the subject of Icedogs, his fifth TV series. He has since published his highly-praised anthology of adventurers, The Faber Book of Exploration.

His most recent book tells the full story of the ‘Icedogs’ expedition and Benedict’s quest to understand what it is that enables any of us to survive hardship.

More recently, Allen has presented Adventure for Boys, a documentary on Rider Haggard for BBC 4, and Travellers Century, a series on the great tradition of British travel writing.

Benedict Allen regularly addresses conferences, as a keynote speaker, throughout the UK and around the world. He inspires, motivates and excites all he addresses, whether he is invited as a platform speaker, after dinner speaker or lecturer. He is both a true personality and high-level achiever, in every sense.

To book Benedict Allen for your event, please contact Parliament on

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