Eric Blakeley
Eric is an 'ordinary guy' who's married, has a young daughter, holds down a regular job as a television reporter and yet has managed to find time to climb Mount Everest, the Seven Summits, and swim the English Channel.
In a hectic forty years he's visited almost 90 different countries, reported from the war-zones of the former Yugoslavia and the Lebanon; produced more than 50 half-hour documentaries for television (some of them about his own expeditions); staged numerous photographic exhibitions; and written a book about the second world war.
He's not short of a thing or two to talk about.
It's perhaps not surprising he's a highly sought after public speaker.
In the 2004 Queen's New Years Honours List Eric was appointed an MBE for services to 'Mountaineering, Sport and Charity'. He's also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society.
The Talks
No two of Eric's presentations are ever exactly the same. Each is tailor-made. He believes this keeps the talks fresh and makes them more engaging and relevant for the audience. Whatever the content Eric draws upon 20 years' television experience as a reporter, cameraman and producer to illustrate his shows with stunning video footage of this adventures.
Going for the Top - Eric's account of his successful climb of Mount Everest in 1997. The highs and lows involved in climbing the world's highest peak, including the story of how team member Hugo Barosso cheated death, surviving in the open near the summit for more than 30 hours.
Scaling the Summits - Swimming the Seas - Both wet and wild. Which is tougher, climbing the highest peak on each of the seven continents or completing the world's most famous long-distance sea swim: The Channel - 21 miles of open sea separating England and France? Only Eric has the answers.
The Swimmers' Everest - Tackling the English Channel - Eric draws on his own experiences to explain why more people have climbed Everest than swum the Channel. He charts the history of the challenge and using interviews with some swimming greats he tries to explain what makes people want to do it.
Peak Performance - Based on his own experiences, and those of various sportsmen and women he's worked with, Eric looks at the subject of motivation and goal-setting.
Eric Blakeley
Go For It! - Eric recounts how his love of red wine and an apparent inability to say 'No' to a challenge have led to all sorts of adventures. From the relatively sane - like running the London Marathon; to the big time - climbing Everest and swimming the English Channel; from the unusual - sky diving, ice diving and going down the Cresta Run; to the bizarre - the World Bog Snorkelling Championships, the annual Empire State Building charity run-up and trying to visit every London tube station in a day.
The Seven Summits: A World Tour - Eric's seven year odyssey to climb the highest peak on each continent: Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa; Mount Everest in Asia; Elbrus in Europe; Mount McKinley in North America; Aconcagua in South America; Mount Kosciuszko in Australia; and Mount Vinson in Antarctica.