Colfe’s was delighted to welcome back travel writer, author and filmmaker Simon Parker, who presented the latest in the John Glyn Society lectures. Simon gave a fascinating account about his cycle travels across America, travelling from the northwest to the southeast and meeting a fascinating array of people along the way.
Simon is a public speaker and broadcast journalist who works across a wide range of themes and subjects. He has reported from more than 100 countries. His award-winning TV travel series, Earth Cycle, has been distributed in 20+ countries globally. He has said “if it involves travel, intriguing people and an untold story, then I’m interested”.
He is an adventurer, and has paraglided solo through the Andes, hiked Bali’s highest volcanoes, driven a rickshaw the length of India, and sailed and cycled from China to London in 133 days. His first book, Riding Out, charted a 3,427 mile journey around “Pandemic Britain”, and many Colfe’s academic scholars remember the lecture he gave this time last year about that journey.
A Year 12 student commented:
I found Simon’s talk about cycling across the United States very interesting – the way that he combined visuals in the form of short films and photos, and his personal testimony about the landscapes and people made for a very engaging talk that almost made me feel like I had met these people too. The visuals in particular were of interest to me because they made me realise that distances in the United States were on a different kind of scale compared to the UK, or Europe as a whole; the idea that he could go 4 or 5 hours without seeing another person was mind blowing to me.
The John Glyn Society lectures are a series of talks for academic scholars across the year groups. The series has included a vast range of external speakers on topics from history, science and medicine to art, travel, anthropology and environmental issues.
