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Benedict Colin Allen

FRGS The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

(born 1 March 1960) is an English writer, explorer, traveller and filmmaker known for his technique of immersion among

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

from whom he acquires survival skills for hazardous journeys through unfamiliar terrain. In 2010, Allen was elected a Trustee and Member of Council of the Royal Geographical Society. He has recorded six TV series for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

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, either alone or with partial or total use of camera crews, and pioneered the use of the hand-held camera for TV, for the first time allowing viewers to witness immersion of a traveller in remote environments without the artifice brought about by a camera-crew. He has published ten books, including the ''Faber Book of Exploration'', which he edited. Towards mid November 2017, Allen became subject to international headlines when reported missing while undertaking an expedition in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. However, he resurfaced not long after, having made his way to an abandoned mission station.

Early life and education

Benedict Allen was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, third child to Virginia and Colin Allen – who had moved from Southern England in order to be a short drive from

Woodford Aerodrome Woodford Aerodrome is a former airfield and aircraft factory at Woodford, Greater Manchester, England, north of Macclesfield. It was opened by the Avro company after the First World War and became an important production centre for military ...

, where Colin was a test pilot for Avro and later Hawker Siddeley, helping develop the three 'V-bombers' (Valiant, Victor and Vulcan Mark 2). His son, Benedict, is first cousin and godson to the historian and writer on India Charles Allen, who was one of those who passed on a sense that there was still an exciting world out there waiting to be understood and explored. As a child, Benedict Allen embarked on numerous fossil-hunting expeditions to

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Heri ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

, and along England's

Jurassic Coast The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about , and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-Decembe ...

. Among more famous influences in his early years were

Wilfred Thesiger Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger (3 June 1910 – 24 August 2003), also known as Mubarak bin Landan ( ar, مُبَارَك بِن لَنْدَن, ''the blessed one of London'') was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. Thesiger's trav ...

Laurens van der Post Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, (13 December 1906 – 15 December 1996) was a South African Afrikaner writer, farmer, soldier, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer and conservationist. He was noted for his interest in J ...

Jacques-Yves Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA ( self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). T ...

Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000& ...

and naturalist

Peter Matthiessen Peter Matthiessen (May 22, 1927 – April 5, 2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher and CIA Operative. A co-founder of the literary magazine ''The Paris Review'', he was the only writer to have won the Nation ...

, all of whom he in due course met. Allen has two older sisters, Katie and Susie. He was educated at

Bradfield College Bradfield College, formally St Andrew's College, Bradfield, is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils aged 11–18, located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire. It is note ...

, and read Environmental Science at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

, participating in three scientific expeditions during his final year. Although he went on to study for a Masters Degree in Ecology he did not graduate, being intent by now only on his first independent expedition, an attempt to cross from the mouth of the Orinoco to the mouth of the Amazon that would mean a first traverse of the Amazon Basin's remote north-east. His claim to have completed the traverse – a journey undertaken with the assistance of locals through some four hundred miles of forest, and in a matter of only a few months, was at the time met with incredulity.

Philosophy and approach

A feature of Allen's expeditions is that they are conducted without Western companions, without a phone or GPS but instead rely where possible on indigenous help, rather than conventional backup from the outside world. 'To me personally, exploration is not about planting a flag, or conquering a nature, or going somewhere in order to make a mark. It's the opposite of these things. It's about opening yourself up, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, and allowing the place to make its mark on you.' As portrayed by one interviewer, he has 'little time' for flag-planting, or any 'imperialist craving for the acquisition of territory' This approach – 'If you go with a map, all you'll end up with is a better version of that same map' – in his case meant making a decision early on not be endorsed by commercial sponsors or be a brand ambassador – the advertising of consumer products sitting uncomfortably with the idea of immersing yourself within an indigenous community in order to listen and learn. After publishing five books describing his various lone journeys across the least explored regions of the Amazon, New Guinea and Sumatra, in the mid 1990s Allen went on to develop the now commonly adopted technique of self-filming with a camcorder, becoming the first (and for many years the only) adventurer to document the experience of immersion in a community or of undergoing a testing journey – through such programmes as ''The Skeleton Coast'', which depicted a first known expedition by foot along the complete length of 1000 mile Namib Desert. A Radio Times cover feature dubbed him "Television's Most Fearless Man".

Patronage

Allen is a Patron of the

Environmental Justice Foundation The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) founded in 2000 by Steve Trent and Juliette Williams that works to secure a world where natural habitats and environments can sustain, and be sustained by, the com ...

, Tony Trust and

Save the Rhino Trust Save the Rhino International (SRI), a UK-based conservation charity, is Europe's largest single-species rhino charity, in terms of funds raised and grants made, and in terms of profile and positioning. It began fundraising for in situ rhino c ...

Expeditions

While still a student, Allen took part in scientific expeditions to a volcano in Costa Rica, to a remote forest in

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

, and – as leader – to a glacier in

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. He went on to establish his reputation through a series of independent journeys to cross through the least known regions of the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. Travelling without Western companions or communication devices, he trusted instead to the know-how of various local communities, making first outside contact with two threatened indigenous peoples – the Obini and Yaifo. Today Allen is acknowledged as one of the last great adventurers in the classic mould, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' listing him as one of the top ten British explorers of all time, the only other living individual being

Sir Ranulph Fiennes Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet (born 7 March 1944), commonly known as Sir Ranulph Fiennes () and sometimes as Ran Fiennes, is a British explorer, writer and poet, who holds several endurance records. Fiennes served in the ...

. He went on to develop the technique of self-filming, becoming the first explorer to bring the full experience of remote travel to television, and in dispensing with a traditional, more cumbersome, camera (and crew) effectively took the entire genre to its limits – while also inadvertently popularizing idea of the "video selfie". He was described as "part of the history of television" by former Director General of the BBC Mark Thompson. Allen's first major exploit was a first crossing of the northeast Amazon basin in 1983; he traversed 417 miles of rainforest on foot and by

dugout canoe A dugout canoe or simply dugout is a boat made from a hollowed tree. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. ''Monoxylon'' (''μονόξυλον'') (pl: ''monoxyla'') is Greek – ''mono-'' (single) + '' ξύλον xylon'' ( ...

over several months – a precarious journey that covered the proposed route of the then planned Perimetral Norte Road through Brazil's Para and Amapa States. In the event, the venture almost cost him his life – he was chased by renegade goldminers, capsized and ended up walking out of the forest some 65 miles with two strains of malaria, a dramatic sequence of events featured in an ''

I Shouldn't Be Alive ''I Shouldn't Be Alive'' is a documentary television series made by Darlow Smithson Productions, a UK-based production company, that featured accounts of individuals or groups caught in life-threatening scenarios away from civilization in natu ...

'' episode aired in 2010. His own portrayal of the journey, his 1985 book, '' Mad White Giant'', was designed to read at one level as a rip-roaring adventure, and at another as an angry attack on his own kind.Explorer It was this formative experience which saw Allen establish his modus operandi: rather than again blunder along as an outsider – the "mad white giant" of his first book – he would attempt to learn from his hosts. There followed a series of treks with the help of remote communities through West Papua and

, culminating in his participation in a brutal initiation ceremony of the Niowra (''Into the Crocodile's Nest'') people of the lowland Sepik. In

Siberut Siberut is the largest and northernmost of the Mentawai Islands, located 150 kilometres west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. It covers an area of 3,838.25 km2 including smaller offshore islands, and had a population of 35,091 at the 2010 Cens ...

and Sumatra he investigated indigenous tales of an "orang pendek" ape man, this time assisted by the Mentawai and Kubu (''Hunting the Gugu'') – and in 1987, aged twenty-seven, made the first recorded crossing of the Central Range of PNG, helped by one of the last of the island's uncontacted communities, a small band known as the Yaifo (''The Proving Grounds''). In 1992 Allen conducted the first crossing of the Amazon basin at its widest, a seven and half month, 3600 mile journey from the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

, south-east to the lowlands to Mato Grosso, this time trained by the Matses or Mayoruna ethnic group of the Peruvian Amazon (''Through Jaguar Eyes''). Two years later he returned to the Matses family which had adopted him, with the help of a camcorder filming ''Raiders of the Lost Lake'', a deliberate reprise of the traveller-as-intruder themes of ''Mad White Giant.'' For the first time the moment by moment progress of a lone and authentically dangerous expedition could be seen by millions. Soon after, he was given first-ever permission to travel the length of the diamond-strewn (and environmentally sensitive) Namib Desert, a three and a half month long journey he accomplished in 1996 with the collaboration of the Namibian Nature Conservancy, his three camel companions and the Himba nomads of the Namib margins (''The Skeleton Coast''). The following year, Allen undertook a 3000 mile, five and a half month journey by horse and camel around Mongolia, this including a lone six week traverse of the Gobi Desert (''Edge of Blue Heaven''). In 1998 he returned to Brazil's Mato Grosso to learn the point-of-view of the Kalapalo, an indigenous community who for years had stood accused of murdering the explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett, his son Jack and Jack's friend Raleigh Rimmel – all of whom had disappeared on Fawcett's expedition of 1925 (''The Bones of Colonel Fawcett''). Two years later, Allen documented encounters with spiritual healers around the globe – including Voodoo priests in Haiti, the Mentawai of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, the

Huichol The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and shamans of

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

, this resulting in the 2000 BBC book and TV series ''Last of the Medicine Men''. There followed the 'Icedogs' expedition of 2000/2001: with training and assistance of the Yupik and Chukchi communities of Chukotka in the Russian Far East, and special permission from the governor of the time, oligarch and future Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, Allen attempted to cross the Bering Strait to Alaska in what turned out to be 'the worst winter in living memory' – and out on the pack-ice nearly died having been separated from his dogteam in a blizzard (''Ice Dogs''). Following this latest brush with mortality, Allen made a decision to end his expedition career, which has taken him from rain forest to desert and now the Arctic – 'as if seeking greater and greater extremes. And perhaps I was.' Allen married and had the first of three children. Thereafter, he presented and wrote ''Traveller's Century'', a three part TV programme for BBC 2 and BBC 4 which examined the lives of three travellers in the extraordinarily prolific British tradition.

Eric Newby George Eric Newby (6 December 1919 – 20 October 2006) was an English travel writer. His works include '' A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush'', ''The Last Grain Race'' and '' A Small Place in Italy''. Early life Newby was born in Barnes, London, ...

personified the Amateur Abroad, who revels in his very lack of preparedness and sets out regardless. Laurie Lee represented the Wandering Minstrel, and

Patrick Leigh Fermor Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greates ...

was the Bryronic figure of daring and intellect combined. Leigh Fermor gave his last ever recorded interview for the TV series. Allen went on to assist BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner in his bid to see birds of paradise in the wild, the result being ''Birds of Paradise: The Ultimate Quest''. It was on this expedition that Allen by chance heard that the Yaifo community that he had known more than thirty years before, and long thought disintegrated under the influence of missionary and wholesale goldmining activity, were still living in relative isolation on the mountain side. He decided to do just "one last" expedition.Explorer

Disappearance in Papua New Guinea

On 26 October 2017, Allen had himself dropped by helicopter at Bisorio Mission, East Sepik Province, then launched with a party of indigenous contacts for a three week trek into the forest, hoping to track down the Yaifo, check up on their well-being, and thank those who had originally helped him over the mountain. Having successfully located the community, and then completed a gruelling trek for a second time over the Central Range, Allen found himself trapped by an upsurge of community violence just north of the international mining concern at Porgera in Enga Province. Over the following days, media outlets around the world speculated as to his fate. However, on 17 November he was extracted by the ''Daily Mail'' newspaper, and taken to hospital with suspected malaria and dengue fever.

Books

As author

* '' Mad White Giant'' (1985, published in America as ''Who Goes Out in the Midday Sun?'') * ''Into the Crocodile's Nest: Journey Inside New Guinea'' (1987) * ''Hunting the Gugu: In Search of the Lost Ape-Men of Sumatra'' (1989) * ''The Proving Grounds: A Journey Through the Interior of New Guinea and Australia'' (1991) * ''Through Jaguar Eyes: Crossing the Amazon Basin'' (1994) * ''The Skeleton Coast'' (1997) * ''The Edge of Blue Heaven'' (1998) * ''Last of the Medicine Men'' (2000) * ''Into the Abyss'' (2006)

As contributor

* ''More Great Railway Journeys'' (1996)

As editor

* ''The Faber Book of Exploration: An Anthology of Worlds Revealed by Explorers Through the Ages'' (2002)

TV series

* ''The Skeleton Coast'' (BBC, 1997) * ''The Edge of Blue Heaven'' (BBC, 1998) * ''The Bones of Colonel Fawcett'' (BBC,1999) * ''Last of the Medicine Men'' (BBC, 1999) * ''Ice Dogs'' (BBC, 2002, National Geographic 2003) * '' Travellers' Century'' (BBC, 2008) * ''

Unbreakable Unbreakable may refer to: * '' Unbreakable: My Story, My Way'', a book written by Jenni Rivera * Unbreakable (horse) (1935–1962), a Thoroughbred racehorse and sire Film and television * ''Unbreakable'' (film series), a trilogy directed by M ...

'' (Five, 2008) *'' Expedition Africa'' (History, 2009)

Other TV programmes

* ''The Raiders of the Lost Lake'' (BBC 2, Video Diary, 1995). A journey to the Upper Yavari in the Peruvian Amazon, where a Matses family had adopted him, and a lone trek to the mysterious (and locally feared) 'Cocha Brava' or Wild Lake. * ''More Great Railway Journeys: Mombasa to the Mountains of the Moon'' (1996, BBC 2) . Through Kenya to Uganda; encounters in contemporary East Africa. * ''Adventures For Boys: the lost worlds of Rider Haggard'' (2007, BBC 4). Profile of the author of King Solomon's Mines and She.

Other TV broadcasts include

* ''

The Big Read The Big Read was a survey on books carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003, where over three-quarters of a million votes were received from the British public to find the nation's best-loved novel of all time. The year-long survey wa ...

'', in which Allen championed ''

His Dark Materials ''His Dark Materials'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of '' Northern Lights'' (1995; published as ''The Golden Compass'' in North America), '' The Subtle Knife'' (1997), and '' The Amber Spyglass'' (2000). It follo ...

'' by

Philip Pullman Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. His books include the fantasy trilogy '' His Dark Materials'' and '' The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'', a fictionalised biography of Jesus. In 2008, ''T ...

– a book that came third out of the nation's top 100 novels. * '' We Need Answers'', 25 February 2010, A British comedy panel show broadcast on BBC Four. * ''

'': ''Alone in the Amazon''

Radio broadcasts include

''Two Men and a Mule''. A BBC Radio 4 series co-presented by historian and explorer Hugh Thomson, the three part programme plots the two men's progress though the Andes along the trail of the last Inca emperors. Broadcast 2, 9 16 October 2015.

Work on other travellers

* ''The Faber Book of Exploration: an anthology of worlds revealed by explorers through the ages'' – brings together the lives of key explorers of different motivations, traditions and nationalities through the centuries. 'This is a major work,' according to ''Condé Nast Traveller'', 'and it should be on every traveller's bookshelf.' * In 2006 Allen published ''Into the Abyss'', which tells the story of his Arctic sledge dog expedition but also attempts to address the question of how any of us keep going in adversity.''Into the Abyss: explorers on the edge of survival'' *His recollections of Wilfred Thesiger, perhaps the greatest explorer of the 20th century, are included in ''Wilfred Thesiger in Africa'' edited by Christopher Morton and Philip N. Grover, London: HarperPress, 2010

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Benedict 1960 births Living people People educated at Bradfield College Alumni of the University of East Anglia English explorers English television presenters English travel writers English non-fiction writers English male non-fiction writers Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society