The Times Magazine 11What I’ve learnt Simon Reeve
Documentary presenter and author
Simon Reeve, 48, grew up in London.
He started at The Sunday Times as a
postboy and then wrote a book about
al-Qaeda that became a New York
Times bestseller. Now he has almost
20 travel series to his name. He lives in
Dartmoor with his wife, Anya, and
their nine-year-old son, Jake.
People often think I must be yet
another privileged public-school
boy on telly. But I went to a very
ordinary comprehensive where
I was a hopeless student. By the
time I was 11, I was good at making
petrol bombs and causing trouble.
I flunked out of school without
any real qualifications and went
on the dole. I was never homeless,
but I certainly knew friends who
had very difficult lives.
Penis soup is gristly and chewy.
I ate it in Madagascar. It wasn’t
spectacular, but was a memory
to last a lifetime. Roasted sheep’s
eyeballs are delicious and even
buffalo poo was surprisingly good.
Rat I cannot recommend. It is
sometimes disguised on the menu
as “tree squirrel”, but you can tell
it’s a bloody rat.
Malaria felt like the Grim Reaper
had come knocking. When I was
vomiting blood in Gabon, initially
I thought I had ebola, so I actually
felt pleased when it was malaria.
Then World War Three broke out
in my body. I was hallucinating
that Mr T was watching over me.
I don’t remember much from
several days afterwards.
I’ve been on the brink of suicide
more than once. I really struggled
with my mental health from the
age of 12 and had serious levels
of counselling. I had love around
me, but ignored it. I fell a long way
into my own darkness and despair.
When I didn’t see any way out,
I nearly ended everything.
I’m pretty rubbish as a dad.
I’m making a go and a hash of
fatherhood in equal measures.
I got Jake a bushcraft knife when
he was very young. I’m not too
worried about limbs breaking or
knife wounds. I’ve always told him
that when he breaks something
he’ll get a special present, because
it means he’ll have been doing
something adventurous.
INTERVIEW Georgina Roberts PORTRAIT Jude EdgintonArmoured underpants are
surprisingly comfortable. If you
have to wear armoured pants, you
know you’re in a properly scary
place. You feel that you are going
into a hostile environment you
need to treat with respect.
It was really hard to be rejected
from a van-driving job when I was
the only applicant. I aspired to that
job. I was massively in danger of
becoming dependent on welfare
benefits. Aboriginal Australianshave this brilliant phrase for being
on welfare: “sit-down money”.
I could easily have lived that life.
I owe everything to Andrew Neil.
When he was editor of The
Sunday Times, he opened up the
post room to people from tricky
backgrounds who had a chance of
writing. If I’d have spent years
slaving for a degree, I wouldn’t
have been so willing to be a gofer.
But I was happy to shunt sacks of
post around. That was my way in.I was lucky to reconcile with my
dad before he died. He was a
difficult man who didn’t really
understand fatherhood because
he’d never been shown it. Both
my parents lost their dads when
they were young. It was tough
for them, and that was passed
on to me. The reconciliation
was a beautiful thing. nIncredible Journeys with Simon Reeve
airs on Sundays on BBC Two