Bear Grylls Popular Books

Bear Grylls Biography & Facts

Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls (; born 7 June 1974) is a British former SAS trooper who is a survival expert, adventurer, and television presenter. He first drew attention after embarking on a number of notable adventures, including several world records in hostile environments, and then became widely known for his television series Man vs. Wild (2006–2011). He is also involved in a number of wilderness survival television series in the UK and US, such as Running Wild with Bear Grylls and The Island with Bear Grylls. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed as The Scout Association’s youngest-ever Chief Scout of the United Kingdom and Overseas Territories at age 35, a post he has held for a second term since 2015. Personal life Grylls was born in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland on 7 June 1974. His family has a strong cricketing background, his grandfather Neville Ford and great-great-grandfather William Augustus Ford having both been first-class cricketers. He is the son of Conservative politician Sir Michael Grylls and his wife Sarah "Sally" (née Ford). Her mother Patrica Smiles, Patricia Ford, Lady Fisher, was briefly an MP, succeeding her father; later she married an MP. Grylls has one sibling, an elder sister, Lara Fawcett, who gave him the nickname 'Bear' when he was a week old. He lived in Donaghadee until the age of four, when his family moved to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. From an early age, he learned to climb and sail with his father, who was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. As a teenager, he learned to skydive and earned a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate. He speaks English, Spanish, and French. He is an Anglican, and has described his Christian faith as the "backbone" in his life: "You can't keep God out. He's all around us, if we're just still enough to listen." Grylls married Shara Cannings Knight in 2000. They have three sons, born in 2003, 2006 and 2009. In August 2015, Grylls left his 11-year-old son on Saint Tudwal's Island off the North Wales coast, as the tide approached, leaving him to be rescued by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) as part of their weekly practice missions. The child was unharmed, though the RNLI later criticised Grylls for the stunt, saying its crew "had not appreciated" that a child would be involved. Grylls used to be a vegan but now consumes a diet predominant in animal-based foods, fruits and honey. In 2024 he commented to the Irish Times that he was proud to be an Irish citizen. Education Grylls was educated at Eaton House, Ludgrove School and Eton College, where he helped start its first mountaineering club. He studied Spanish and German at the University of the West of England, Bristol and at Birkbeck College, where he graduated with a 2:2 bachelor's degree, obtained part-time, in Hispanic studies in 2002. Military service After leaving school, Grylls hiked in the Himalayan mountains of Sikkim and West Bengal. From 1994–1997, he served in the Territorial Army with 21 SAS as a trooper. His time in the SAS ended as the result of a free fall parachuting accident in Kenya in 1996; his parachute failed to open, causing him to break three vertebrae. At 16,000 feet, his fall is one of the highest ever to be survived without a functional parachute. In 2004, Grylls was awarded the honorary rank of lieutenant commander in the Royal Naval Reserve. Then in 2013 he was awarded the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel in the Royal Marines Reserve, and promoted to Honorary Colonel in June 2021. Expeditions Everest On 16 May 1998, Grylls achieved his childhood dream of climbing to the summit of Mount Everest in Nepal, 18 months after breaking three vertebrae in a parachuting accident. At 23, he was at the time among the youngest people to have achieved this feat. There is some dispute over whether he was the youngest Briton to have done so, as he was preceded by James Allen, a climber holding dual Australian and British citizenship, who reached the summit in 1995 at age 22. The record has since been surpassed by Jake Meyer and then Rob Gauntlett who summitted at age 19. To prepare for climbing at such high altitudes in the Himalayas, in 1997, Grylls became the youngest Briton to climb Ama Dablam, a peak once described by Sir Edmund Hillary as "unclimbable", although now the third most popular in the Himalayas for permitted expeditions. Circumnavigation of the UK In 2000, Grylls led the team to circumnavigate the British Isles on jet skis, taking about 30 days, to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He also rowed naked in a homemade bathtub along the Thames to raise funds for a friend who lost his legs in a climbing accident. Crossing the North Atlantic In 2003, he led a team of five, including his childhood friend, SAS colleague, and Mount Everest climbing partner Mick Crosthwaite, on an unassisted crossing of the north Atlantic Ocean, in an open rigid inflatable boat. Grylls and his team traveled in an eleven-metre-long boat and encountered force 8 gale winds with waves breaking over the boat while passing through icebergs in their journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia to John o' Groats, Scotland. Dinner party at altitude In 2005, alongside the balloonist and mountaineer David Hempleman-Adams and Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal, leader of the Royal Navy Freefall Parachute Display Team, Grylls created a world record for the highest open-air formal dinner party, which they did under a hot-air balloon at 7,600 metres (25,000 ft), dressed in full mess dress and oxygen masks. To train for the event, he made over 200 parachute jumps. This event was in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and The Prince's Trust. Paramotoring over the Himalayas In 2007, Grylls embarked on a record-setting Parajet paramotor in Himalayas near Mount Everest. He took off from 4,400 metres (14,500 ft), 8 miles (13 km) south of the mountain. Grylls reported looking down on the summit during his ascent and coping with temperatures of −60 °C (−76 °F). He endured dangerously low oxygen levels and eventually reached 9,000 metres (29,500 ft), almost 3,000 metres (10,000 ft) higher than the previous record of 6,102 metres (20,019 ft). The feat was filmed for Discovery Channel worldwide as well as Channel 4 in the UK. While Grylls initially planned to cross over Everest itself, the permit was only to fly to the south of Everest, and he did not traverse Everest out of risk of violating Chinese airspace. Journey Antarctica 2008 In 2008, Grylls led a team of four to climb one of the most remote unclimbed peaks in the world in Antarctica, to raise funds for children's charity Global Angels and promote the use of alternative energies. During this mission the team also aimed to explore the coast of Antarctica by inflatable boat and jetski, part powered by bioethanol, and then to travel across some of the vast ice desert by wind-powered kite-ski and electric powered paramotor. However, the expedition was cut short after G.... Discover the Bear Grylls popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Bear Grylls books.