Tim Slessor was born in England in 1931. His father was an officer in the Royal Navy’s Air Arm; consequently Tim spent most of his pre-war boyhood in Malta – the then home-base of the RN’s Mediterranean fleet. But in June, 1940, when his father (along with over 1,500 others) was lost in the sinking of the carrier, HMS Glorious and her two escorting destroyers, his mother took him back to her home country of Australia. Those wartime years “down under” were, Tim recognizes even today, very formative. In late 1945, with the War over, he and his mother eventually returned to the UK.
At 18, after completing a very English middle-class education, Tim chose to do his military service in the Navy, specifically in the Royal Marine Commandos. Indeed, after a year “in the ranks” he was commissioned as a Lieutenant, and then posted to an active service unit in Malaya – fighting communist terrorists. As he later wrote, “In the jungle, one grows up quickly”. In late 1952, with his service completed, he took up the minor scholarship he had earlier gained at Cambridge University. Three years later, he graduated with a degree in Geography. During his last year, he and a friend put together a six-man expedition; they aimed to become the first people to drive all-the-way-overland (in two early Land Rovers) from Europe to Singapore. A number of people had already tried – and failed. Suffice it to say that, after a long and, at times, difficult journey of 12,000 miles, the Cambridge crew succeeded. Their films were later shown on both the BBC-TV and NBC. And Tim’s book, “First Overland”, in its day a minor best seller, is still, after 63 years, in print; indeed – it’s now in its seventh edition. A critic reckoned it, “The best travel book I’ve ever read”. Tim’s reaction? “I wasn’t just proud; I was highly conceited – still am!”
In 1957, he joined the BBC as a documentary trainee. In subsequent years, as he became more experienced (and a presenter/director) he travelled the world and won several awards both in the UK and US; he is particularly proud of a citation from the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma – for a five part-series on the American West. Indeed, in 1965, he quit the BBC (after a minor spat “with an idiot boss”) and migrated with his wife and their two little small children to a small college in Chadron – a remote but wonderful cow-town in north-west Nebraska. He taught English and Journalism. Later, the family moved east to Syracuse, NY where, for two years, he worked for the local PBS station (WCNY-TV).
Eventually, the family returned to the UK; Tim went back to the BBC where he joined a team making a 13-part documentary series about the UK – shot entirely from a helicopter. He particularly recalls filming an 800 miles aerial journey from the Scilly Isles to remotest Shetland. Later he made the BBC’s five-part tribute to Australia on the occasion of that country’s bi-centenary (1788-1988). He also became a bit of a specialist on documentaries about the US; amongst many other assignments in those parts, he worked on Alistair Cooke’s 13-part NBC/BBC series about the history of the US. He eventually wound up in a largely administrative/executive role as the number two in the BBC’s general documentary department. He retired in 1990 in order, as he says, “to get back to the sharp end – to actually be making documentaries again”. He filmed from the Himalayas to the Arctic, from the Out-Back to the Sahara.
Since then he has written two more books. The first, “Lying in State”, is a heavily researched polemic questioning Britain’s Ministry of Defense for a series of nine “official” cover-ups and deceptions – ranging, for example, from the 20-year denial of Gulf-War Syndrome to the true circumstances behind the loss of his father’s ship back in 1940. His other book, “Out West”, continues his fascination with the many veined story of the American West; one critic reckoned that, “Western histories – a crowded field. But this is as good as they get – and it’s by a Brit!” Again, Tim says, “I’m not just proud; I’m highly conceited!”
Finally, as he likes to comment, “I get back to Nebraska and Wyoming as often as I can afford. But if I had enough cash, I’d surely have a private jet and commute two or three times a year between London and Buffalo, Wyoming – God’s own country”. A problem is that, at 88, I can’t get the necessary travel/health insurance”.
Even more finally, Tim is not long returned from a journey to the Chatham Islands. They are on the far side of New Zealand. Check them out on a globe; from Britain, one cannot go any further – without coming back. Which, he says, is why he went there.
