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This enquiry into the explorer mindset is part meditation, part memoir, from one of ‘Britain’s greatest explorers’ (Telegraph)
What does it mean to be an explorer in the twenty-first century?
This 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. Benedict decides to journey back to a clouded mountain in New Guinea to find an old friend called Korsai, and to fulfil a promise they made as young men.
Explorer tells the story of what it means to be ‘lost’ and ‘found’.
“A nuanced and sensitive long conversation with the people of Papua New Guinea… [Allen] is a sensitive observer … [he] has an ear for dialogue and the inconsequential, and a gift for bringing alive the characters he meets”
the Times
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“A remarkable journey unfolds … [Allen] writes clean, honest prose, creating startling images of all he sees … an extraordinary story, painfully assembled and beautifully told”
spectator
“A love song to the Yaifo and all peoples struggling to maintain dignity and culture in a world gone wrong”
daily Telegraph
“Honest, sensitive and gives a brilliant look at a world most of us just dream about”
our Man On The Ground Travel
“Brilliant. Reads like a thriller”
Marcus Du Sautoy
Benedict Allen
Benedict Allen read Environmental Science at the University of East Anglia and is a former member of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, Patron of the Environmental Justice Foundation, the Tony Foundation and Save the Rhino Trust. Best known, perhaps, for having pioneered the ‘video selfie’ as a result of filming his solo expeditions for television, he is also editor of The Faber Book of Exploration.
@benedictallen | benedictallen.com