Levison Wood: Trekking the Nile, near-death experiences and why nothing beats a cup of tea and a piece of toast

'There was a time when I couldn't walk down the King's Road without being mobbed,' chuckles Levison Wood. This is no brag, though: it's said with the bemusement of a man who was catapulted to fame after his plan to trek the length of the River Nile made him into an unlikely celebrity alongside today's crop of modern explorers.

We're delighted that Levison joined James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast this week, to talk about how his early life roaming Staffordshire morphed — via a stint in the Paras regiment — into a career trekking the world, from the jungles of South America to the freezing mountains of the Himalayas.

His books and documentaries — one of which became the most-watched factual TV programme in Britain in 2015 — have made him a hugely well-recognised face, and he tells the tale of how his thirst for adventure, and his fascination with connecting with people around the world, brought him to where he is today.

That fascination with people also underlies his latest book, The Great Tree Story. He happily admits that he's no botanist, and couldn't tell one species of tree from another: instead, this is a tale of how the lives of people have intertwined with the trees around them for millennia. Take the yew trees that dot churchyards around Britain, for example: they weren't planted after the ancient churches were built; instead, the churches were built at the sacred spots where the oldest trees stood proud.

It's a fascinating listen; you can find out more about The Great Tree Story here.

Episode credits

Host: James Fisher

Guest: Levison Wood

Editor and producer: Toby Keel

Music: JuliusH via Pixabay