BEN FOGLE
About 25 years ago, Ben and I were neighbours, living across the street from each other in Notting Hill. He disappeared for a bit, I went on holiday in search of winter sunshine and then lo & behold, the next time I saw him was on a beach in Antigua. At the very same hotel I was staying in. It truly is a small world.
I had taken a relatively conventional route to get to this beach – the BA2157 flight from Gatwick. Ben had rowed there with our mutual friend James Cracknell.
Other than a bit of turbulence possibly and a couple of good movies, nothing much of note happened on my journey across the Atlantic. But the same could most definitely not be said of Ben and James’s journey. It’s all captured in an amazing documentary they made called Through Hell and High Water.
Since then, our paths have continued to intermittently cross, kids at the same school etc etc, but he’s also a regular in my living room with his New Lives in the Wild series. Ben has always been a loyal Aubin customer, patronising our store on Westbourne Grove back in the day and I’m pretty sure there’s a fair number of pairs of Aubin shorts in his vast and well known short collection.
An over used term, but Ben really is a national treasure, documenting people’s lives in a way which shows the most incredible empathy. He has an unrivalled knack for getting people to trust him and to open up in a way which is very honest. It’s really very compelling viewing.
To some degree, we can all divide our lives up into chapters. And for most of us, there’s a few. But Ben’s list of chapters is more akin to the entire works of William Shakespeare. And his chapters are not just about travel. But about adventure. Always looking to push himself outside of his comfort zone.
The next exciting adventure being his recent investment into Buffalo Systems alongside his business partner @jamessleater of @norton&sons Unless you’re a real outdoors enthusiast, you may well not have heard of Buffalo. But if you’ve ever watched any of Ben’s many shows on TV, you’ll definitely have seen it. Because the iconic kangaroo pouch smock jacket Ben is rarely seen without is a Buffalo.
Ben’s worn these jackets all his life. And he reckons to have worn his beloved Buffalo shirts in the Alps, the Andes, the Himalaya, in the Arctic and the Antarctic. That’s some air miles! Started by the late Hamish Hamilton in 1979, Buffalo is Sheffield born, bred and manufactured. In the words of Remington Steel, he loved it so much, he bought the company!
Watch this space for what happens next.
