The wild side
Ben Fogle talks to Alice Cairns about celebrity, adventure and life in the wilderness.
Could you live in the wild? Could you survive without a phone, a TV, or a coffee machine? Could you forgo modern comforts in order to commune with nature, and weather hostile conditions to live a wilder, more authentic life?
Ben Fogle certainly could. The TV presenter, adventurer and author is known for his travels to remote and challenging parts of our world, from the summit of Mount Everest to the ruins of Chernobyl.
On May 3, Ben is coming to Guildford’s G Live with his new show, Ben Fogle – Wild, to talk about the beauties and the benefits of a life lived wildly.
“For the last twelve years or so I’ve been making my Channel Five series New Lives in the Wild about people all around the world who have dropped off the grid in order to live in wild places and experience a simpler life,” Ben says.
“It’s become incredibly popular, and I’m asked questions about these people and their lives dozens of times a day. What are they actually like? What are the pros and cons of their lifestyle? Could I live like that myself? So I thought it would be really interesting to put together a stage show and to talk about how to find happiness and contentment in your life by engaging with the wild.”
Some of the people Ben met while making New Lives in the Wild have gone to extreme lengths to sever themselves from society and seek solitude in nature. But according to Ben, travelling to far-flung places isn’t the only way to encounter wildness in your day-to-day life.
“I’m not just talking about finding wildness in places like Siberia and Outer Mongolia, but also here in the UK, in Wales, in Scotland, in Oxfordshire. I’ve visited people all over the world who have found ways to simplify their lives. The show is about what we can learn from our relationship with the wild, wherever we may find it, and what it can teach us about ourselves. That’s the nuts and bolts of it anyway.”
Ben’s own relationship with the wilderness is a complex one. He’s a passionate lover of adventure and travel and feels an instinctive pull to the secluded life (“part of me is actually quite introverted and would quite like to live in a little cabin in the woods with lots of dogs and my immediate family” he explains).
But Ben is also a public figure, with a job that involves TV cameras, large audiences and packed-out theatres. As his public profile has grown, he has lost some of the freedom that many would associate with a truly wildlife.
“It’s a really interesting point” Ben says.
“I am in the public eye, which means I do have to perform sometimes. And when I’m out in public, people want to stop and chat with me. Anonymity is something that I lost many, many years ago. Some people lose that anonymity on purpose, and it’s their ambition to become famous and to enjoy that side of things. For me, it’s always been part of the job.”
But if fame isn’t something that Ben actively sought out, it does have its compensations.
“My job is about having encounters with people, having experiences, and becoming a storyteller. As a storyteller, of course, you have to be a bit of a performer, and you have to have an audience. So standing on stage in front of 1,000 people may not come naturally to me, but I actually really enjoy the opportunity to share my own experiences with people, and hopefully to inspire them to be curious and open-minded.”
Ben’s balancing act between wild spaces and public places began in his childhood, which encompassed both central London and remote Canada.
“I grew up in two worlds” he explains.
“I was raised in central London just off Marble Arch, but I also spent all my holidays in the wilds of Canada, where my family lived. I moved between an extremely urban environment and an extremely wild one, with moose and beavers all around me. I love that juxtaposition, that variety. I’ve always loved living with my feet straddling those two worlds.”
Ben’s job has allowed him to keep that unconventional balance going, with months spent with his family in the UK followed by adventures in some of the most unreachable and wild corners of the globe.
“I am privileged to spend six or seven months a year in the wildest parts of the world. I was in the Colombian jungle all of last week, and I’ll be in the Norwegian Arctic next week. And then in between, I’m back between London and Oxfordshire and I get to enjoy the very best of Great Britain and the culture that we have here theatres, cinemas, and restaurants. That’s the equilibrium I’ve arrived at, and I believe that everyone needs to arrive at a personal balance between themselves and nature.”
Of course, travelling for more than half the year wouldn’t work for everyone, and Ben is often asked how his family cope with his long absences.
“It wouldn’t work for everyone. I’m away a lot” he admits.
“I was in Antarctica for four weeks at the beginning of this year, which was hard for everyone, to be honest. I really missed my family. But it’s what I’ve always done. It’s my job. And I like to think that the stories I can tell my children of what I’ve experienced, the people I’ve met, and the places I’ve seen, will make it all worthwhile.
They also join me occasionally – they’re very well-travelled children – but I don’t want to force it on them, I want them to experience it in their own time. If they love it, then I’ll be very happy and proud. And if they decide they want to become city bankers, well, that’s the beauty of life – you choose your path.
My own path went from central London back into the wilderness, and I think whatever happens and wherever I live, I’ll always relate more to the wilderness than to the big city.”
Listening to a catalogue of Ben’s adventures is awe-inspiring stuff. He has rowed the Atlantic and beaten hypothermia and frostbite in a race across the Antarctic plateau. He’s cycled a rickshaw non-stop from Edinburgh to London, summitted Mount Everest, flown a fighter jet in the Czech Republic and swum from Alcatraz to San Francisco. Is there anything at all that he fears?
“I’m scared of failure” he admits.
“I had a lot of failings as a child. I always seemed to be surrounded by people who were better at sports than me, I was hopeless at academics, and I never felt that I was very good at anything. It’s one of the reasons I still get really frustrated by our modern attitude towards education because it's teaching children that the whole of life is a competition. If you weren't good at sports, and you weren't good at academics, then basically you were put on the failure pile. You were the dweeb that no one really cared about.”
But Ben has turned this early fear of failure into a powerful motivator.
And it’s Ben’s firm conviction that anyone can escape their comfort zone, wherever they live and whatever their means.
“There’s wildness everywhere. As someone from central London, I still get a little buzz of excitement when I go to Richmond Park because there are deer roaming wild and there are all sorts of wildlife, right there in the heart of the city. And I think that's what's really beautiful: you can find a little bit of adventure, almost anywhere.”
