Client details

Simon Reeve is a television presenter and bestselling author, with a passion for travel, history, current affairs, wildlife and the environment.

As the presenter of the acclaimed ‘adventure journalism’ TV series Tropic of Capricorn, Equator, Explore, Places That Don’t Exist and Meet the Stans, Simon has travelled to more than 65 countries for the BBC.

During 2009 Simon has been travelling around the Tropic of Cancer, the northern border of the Tropics region, for a major 6x1 hour BBC2 series of the same name, due for transmission in early 2010.

The Tropic of Cancer series is Simon’s third round-the-world trip exploring the Tropics, the region of the planet with both the richest natural biodiversity, and the greatest concentration of human suffering.

The 2006 series Equator (3x1hr) and Tropic of Capricorn (4x1hr, BBC2, 2008) were Simon’s earlier television adventures exploring this fascinating region. Saving the most interesting tropical line to last, this new Tropic of Cancer series has a strong current affairs theme, with issues including poverty, the drugs trade, climate change, industrial pollution, and a forgotten war. But it is also a spectacular travelogue. Starting in Mexico, Simon circles the planet, following the Tropic of Cancer east to paradise beaches in the Caribbean, then crosses the Sahara, borders in North Africa closed to foreigners for decades, the deserts of Arabia, the jungles of Asia, and travels on to Hawaii, visiting 18 countries, meeting amazing people, witnessing bizarre and beautiful sights, and encountering spectacular and endangered wildlife.

The 2008 BBC TV series Tropic of Capricorn (4×1hours) saw Simon travelling around the line marking the southern border of the tropics. On his epic journey, Simon passed through southern Africa, Madagascar, Australia and South America. The Daily Mail said: “Five Stars…Brilliant…a fascinating, illuminating journey…much more than a travelogue. As well as jaw-dropping beauty, we see poverty, smuggling, deforestation, endangered wildlife, widespread HIV, a forgotten genocide… It sounds bleak, but thanks to the informed, inquisitive and genial Reeve, it makes compelling television.”

Simon’s accompanying book, also called Tropic of Capricorn, is published by BBC Books. The Daily Telegraph said: “like all the best travellers, Reeve carries out his investigations with infectious relish, and in the realisation that trying to understand the country you’re in is not just fascinating, but also hugely enjoyable.”

In the 2006 BBC series Equator, Simon headed east around the planet, passing through troubled areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Radio Times said it was “an extraordinary journey…eye-opening…revelatory…thrilling and thought-provoking…hits us with jaw-dropping facts…delivers a string of revealing snapshots.”

In Places That Don’t Exist (2005), Simon travelled through a group of unrecognised nations – countries so obscure they don’t officially exist. Among the destinations visited were Somaliland, Transdniestria, Nagorno-Karabkh, Ajaria and South Ossetia. The Daily Telegraph said the five-part series was: “exemplary… riveting… eye-opening… remarkable… superb”.

In Meet the Stans (2003), Simon travelled through Central Asia from the far north-west of Kazakhstan, by the Russian border, east to the Chinese border, south through Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the edge of Afghanistan, and west to Uzbekistan and the legendary Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. The Times said: “Simon Reeve’s journey through Kazakhstan is a first-class Boy’s Own adventure on film and illuminating too. I can’t imagine anyone switching off who stays for the first five minutes.”

Simon, who is based in London, started work as a teenage postboy on a national newspaper, and spent more than five years as the youngest staff writer on the paper. He left to write investigative features for publications including Time magazine and Esquire, and then produced, wrote or edited a series of current-affairs books investigating subjects such as terrorism, biological warfare, international organised crime and nuclear smuggling.

Simon’s book The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism, which warned of a new age of apocalyptic terrorism, was the first in the world on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. Originally published in 1998 it has been a New York Times bestseller.

The Washington Times said it was “a compelling reconstruction”, and “an outstanding account describing a terrible and growing peril”. Ahmed Rashid (bestselling author of the critically-acclaimed Taliban) said it was “truly original investigative work”, noting “Reeve has had unprecedented access to Arab sources as well as US intelligence sources”. The book led to BBC News describing Simon as “perhaps the world’s leading expert on al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden".

Simon is also the author of One Day in September: the full story of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and Israeli revenge operation ‘Wrath of God’, published by Faber in 2000. The International Herald Tribune described the book as “a masterclass in investigative journalism”, saying it “brilliantly recaptures the tension of the day as well as the human cost of the botched police operation”. The New Yorker said it was “highly skilled and detailed…a page-turner”. The film of the same name, narrated by the actor Michael Douglas, won the Oscar for best feature documentary.

Simon has received a One World Broadcasting Trust award for an “outstanding contribution to greater world understanding”.

His website is at: www.simonreeve.co.uk

Youtube site: www.youtube.com/shootandscribble

 
Broadcast credits:

Tropic of Cancer - BBC (scheduled for 2010)

Tropic of Capricorn - BBC

Explore - BBC

Equator - BBC

Places That Don't Exist - BBC

Conspiracies - SKY

Outrageous Fortunes - BBC

House of Saud: Inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - BBC

Meet the Stans - BBC

 
Main Publications:

Tropic of Capricorn: circling the world on a southern adventure, published by BBC Books, 2008.
One Day in September: the full story of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and Israeli revenge operation ‘Wrath of God’, published by Faber & Faber, Arcade and Penguin, 2000.
The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism, published by Andre Deutsch and North Eastern University Press (US), 1998.

 
Special skills / qualifications:

Endurance expeditions, Expedition Medic, Skier, Investigative Journalist, Hostile Environment trained, author of books on terrorism, history and modern history.