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John Pilkington – Writer, broadcaster, lecturer
John Pilkington has been called ‘one of Britain’s greatest tellers of travellers’ tales’. In 1983, after journeys in Africa and Latin America, he completed a 500-mile solo crossing of the western Nepal Himalaya and told the story in his first book ‘Into Thin Air’. His interest in Asia grew further with the opening in 1986 of the border between Pakistan and China, making it possible – for the first time in forty years – to retrace virtually the whole of the Silk Road. John was one of the first modern travellers to do so, and he wrote about the journey in ‘An Adventure on the Old Silk Road’. This was followed in 1991 by ‘An Englishman in Patagonia’, recounting eight months spent exploring the southernmost tip of South America. Nowadays, John is more familiar as a broadcaster with the BBC World Service and with Radio 4, for whom he has made adventure documentaries such as ‘The Uttermost Part of the Earth’, ‘Pilkington in Patagonia’, ‘Pilkington in Kyrgyzstan’, ‘Pilkington in Ladakh’ and most recently ‘On the Trail of Butch and Sundance’, an investigation into the deaths in Bolivia of the most famous outlaws of the Wild West. He also contributes to ‘From our own Correspondent’ and writes occasionally for ‘The Sunday Times’, ‘The Independent’ and ‘Geographical’ magazine. In 2006, John became a recipient of the Royal Geographical Society’s much-coveted Ness Award for his contribution to the popularisation of geography and the wider understanding of our world. TalksJohn’s presentations are universally well received. He has collected a long list of accolades from the hundreds of talks he has given over the last 25 years. His technical expertise, together with a natural ability to enthuse audiences both young and old, makes for a stunning presentation. A Stroll through the Axis of Evil (New talk for 2010)Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran are in the news for all the wrong reasons. Starting in Beirut, John unravelled a picture quite different from the news stories as he followed a winding route via the Euphrates, the Caucasus and the Valleys of the Assassins to finish on the Persian Gulf. He enjoyed unbridled hospitality from a spectacular variety of people - Druze, Maronites, Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, Azeris and both Shi'ite and Sunni Iranians - and found families and whole communities working together to survive the harsh climate and political strife. As always John took lots of photographs, and he has put the best of them into this new presentation. Heart of the SaharaEvery week throughout the winter, caravans of up to fifty camels arrive bellowing and snorting in Timbuktu. They are at the end of a three-week, 450-mile trek and each carries four huge slabs of Taoudenni salt, the 'white gold' of the Sahara. Taoudenni is Mali's remotest and most primitive settlement - a posting from Hell. With three camels and a Moorish guide, John set off from Timbuktu in 2006 to find stunning desert landscapes and a life lived much as it was a millennium ago, when salt was, literally, worth its weight in gold. Up the Mekong to TibetA journey up the world’s twelfth longest river from the South China Sea to Tibet and beyond. Starting among the ricefields of Vietnam, John made his way via Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Burma and through the gorges of China’s Yunnan province, meeting river-people of seven nationalities along the way. In a thrilling climax to the trip, he and two Tibetans reached the glacier on Mount Guosongmucha, north of Tibet, where the Mekong rises at over 17,000 feet. The Royal Road of the IncasJohn spent eight months walking this ancient track which can still be traced for more than 1,500 miles through the Andes connecting the twin Inca capitals of Quito and Cusco. The trip was full of surprises – volcanic eruptions, floods, a military coup and an attack by armed vigilantes – but sustained by the native Andean potato, he reached his goal and made some unexpected discoveries along the way. Pilkington in BoliviaMore high-altitude exploring, this time on the Bolivian altiplano, where John looks at life in some of the Andes’ most isolated villages. From dazzling salt pans near the Chilean border he joined a llama caravan to a market town where salt has been bartered since Inca times. En route he discovered dinosaur tracks, and unearthed some fresh evidence about the last days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid! Pilkington in LadakhIn 1995 John spent three months exploring this high-altitude wilderness on India’s frontier with Tibet. The people he met were fiercely self-sufficient, but he found them also to be warm and gregarious, with a gentle wisdom. Once again he was making programmes for Radio 4. An Englishman in PatagoniaJohn spent three seasons exploring this southernmost part of South America, including Tierra del Fuego and an island off Antarctica. The trip provided opportunities for stunning photography, as well as the chance to observe penguins, meet gauchos and take tea with the Patagonia Welsh. Andean music and some of his own recordings provide a background to this presentation about what has come to be known as 'the uttermost part of the earth'. An Adventure on the Old Silk RoadIn 1986 the opening of the border between Pakistan and China made it possible – for the first time in nearly half a century – to retrace the original line of the Silk Road across Asia. John was one of the first modern travellers to do so, and this is the story of his 8,000-mile journey. The presentation includes local and Western music together with excerpts from radio recordings he made along the way. After a ride with a Kyrgyz camel caravan and a visit to a lost city in the Taklamakan Desert, he leads his audience through the ‘Jade Gate’ to a silk mill and a newly opened stretch of the Great Wall, before finishing on the shores of the Yellow Sea. What others have said ...'Another Spellbound success! John was a huge hit with all ages both backstage and onstage ...
the audience didn’t want to leave!'.
Caroline Sharman, Director, Theatre Chipping Norton
'He is a wonderful speaker and we really enjoyed meeting him'.
Deborah Gibbs, John Lyon School, Middlesex
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