The true story of my wilderness years

The Accidental Adventurer

The weird and wonderful true story of a national treasure in the making

Funny, entertaining and really rather inspiring, too

Ben Fogle shot to fame as the star of the BBC's first attempt at reality television, Castaway, in 2000. The son of actress Julia Foster and vet Bruce Fogle, his life has never been exactly ordinary. As well as taking part in many of the toughest physical challenges on earth, he has found himself competing in the World Championships of morris dancing, stinging-nettle-eating and crabbing. He is a Knight of the Principality of Sealand and President of the Hedgehog Preservation Society. 
 
Ben has presented numerous programmes including the BBC's Animal Park, Countryfile, Wild in Africa, Wild on the West Coast, Crufts, One Man and His Dog, The Secret of Scott's Hut and three series of the hit adventure show Extreme Dreams. He is a special correspondent for NBC, an ambassador for WWF, Médecins Sans Frontières and Tusk, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the President of the Campaign for National Parks. He lives in London with his wife Marina, their two children Ludo and Iona, and their dogs Maggi and Inca.

Ben Fogle's life has been action-packed to say the least. He has rowed across the Atlantic, walked to the South Pole, run the Sahara and ice-skated across Sweden. He has encountered isolated tribes in deepest Papua New Guinea, caused a Boeing 747 to dump £100k of fuel before making an emergency landing in Sao Paolo, and frequently been mistaken for Prince William along the way. 
 
So how did a cripplingly shy, geeky, perennially homesick boy end up doing all this? Ben's still not entirely sure himself, but this wonderful book tells his story and will strike a chord with anyone puzzling about life, and how to live it differently. 
 
This is a book about defying expectations, conquering fears, battling laziness and, just occasionally, winning.

Adventures in Britain's Faraway Outposts

The Teatime Islands

Ben Fogle is the new Michael Palin - his enthusiasm and energy are contagious.

Ben Fogle was the star of the BBC's hit series Castaway 2000. Now presenting Country File, The Teatime Islands is Ben's first book. He lives in London.

Welcomed with open arms, derided as a pig-ignorant tourist and occasionally mocked mercilessly for his trouble, Ben Fogle visited the last flag-flying outposts of the British Empire. 
 
With caution, dignity and a spare pair of pants thrown to the wind, he set out to discover just exactly who would choose to live on islands as remote as these and - more importantly - tried to figure out exactly why. Landing himself on islands so isolated, wind-swept, barren and just damned peculiar that they might have Robinson Crusoe thinking twice, Fogle: 
 
- Almost becomes lunch on the appropriately named Carcass Island 
 
- Gets deported from Pitcairn for being both a spy and a smuggler 
 
- Uncovers the story of the tyrant who became St Helena's most unwilling and least popular guest 
 
- And witnesses a shark attack from a respectable distance. 
 
Why he went, what he did when he got there and how exactly he got back in one piece makes for an eye-opening but affectionate look into life in these unique, peculiar places.

Ben Fogle

For as long as he can remember, Ben Fogle has been surrounded by creatures great and small. As a young boy his best friends were Liberty and Lexington, the family dogs. Then there was Milly the puma-sized cat, Jaws the goldfish and three very ‘charismatic’ parrots, not to mention a whole host of weird and wonderful animals that came through the doors of his father’s veterinary practice. 
 
Then came Inca, Ben’s adorable black Labrador, who changed his life. Since first melting the nation’s heart on Castaway, the duo have been inseparable. With Inca’s help, Ben was soon charming worms and tickling trout on Countryfile, minding the big cats on Animal Park and fronting the BBC’s coverage of Crufts. 
 
Ben’s passion for wildlife has taken him all over the world, from the plains of Africa to the sea ice of Antarctica. He has played with penguins, been chased by bull elephant seals and tapirs, and helped operate on a cheetah. He has given mud packs to rhinos, bathed with elephants and risked life and limb diving with Nile crocodiles, all the while campaigning tirelessly for conservation, the environment and animal welfare. 
 
Hair-raising, heart-breaking and wildly entertaining, The Accidental Naturalist tells the extraordinary true stories of Ben’s amazing encounters with animals and how they changed his life.

Ben Fogle

Books by Ben Fogle

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