Simon Reeve's adventures in Journeys To Impossible Places

Virgin Radio

9 Oct 2021, 15:24

Photo: Getty Images

The broadcaster and long-time adventurer joined the Graham Norton Radio Show today to chat about his new book Journeys To Impossible Places, which comes out on the 28th October.

Speaking on the journeys he's taken and shown to the world, he explained: "It can be a bit upsetting when we look at the state of the world and we think 'Oh my goodness, what on earth have we done to it?' but I think the great joy for me about travel is actually I really like humans"

"I really love us and wherever I am, whether it's a dark, difficult place or the most beautiful island on the planet, there's always human beings there who are wonderful and inspiring and I think they keep me jolly, and keep the spirits up even though you do despair sometimes slightly at what we collectively are doing"

Journeys to Impossible Places continues Simon's story of his astonishing adventures and experiences, carrying on from the stories that he started telling in Sunday Times bestseller Step By Step.

Whilst the first book traced the first decades of his life, Journeys To Impossible Places now takes us to more tricky, beautiful and dangerous corners of the world as he shares unique experiences and lessons learned from the joy and grief he's experienced in his personal life, and the people who've helped him along the way. This includes his son, Jake.

Talking about his struggle with fertility, and writing about it in the book, he says: "the only difficult bit about it was, was it going to upset or embarrass my son?"

"I don't have a problem with spilling my beans out in any sense so I don't have anything to hide in that sense. I realised after I did my first book about me, me, me, where I talked about my mental health challenges and just general awfulness when I was a teenager, that I found that really cathartic actually"

"People responded to it in a really warm way and I realised that even a D-Lister like me, if we speak up about what we've been through, that can potentially help a couple of other people."

"I think there's a freedom and a freeing of talking about situations we've been through, but I didn't want to embarrass my lad too much. He's 10, he's not in the whole teenage time of of 'Everything dad did would just be awful' stage and I talked to him, and he was completely cool about it"

He jokes "So I've made a note about what he said so in years to come when he says 'How could you do that?' I can go 'You did say it was alright!'

More revelations, adventures and important discussions in Simon's brand new book.

Journeys To Impossible Places comes out in hardback on the 28th October.

Listen to The Graham Norton Radio Show every Saturday AND Sunday from 9:30 am on Virgin Radio or catch up on-demand here.

Advertisement

Advertisement