After hitch-hiking from London to Johannesburg before he was 21, and two further years hitching around every country in South and Central America, John never really shook off the travel bug. He studied Latin American History and Sociology at university before becoming a language teacher in Spain and Portugal. He then worked as a tour guide for Journey Latin America, taking small groups to South America, and bringing most of them back.

It was during this time that he started making his own expeditions – especially to the Amazon.

‘Up the Creek: an Amazon Adventure’, originally published in 1986, and to be reissued in February 2012, was an account of one of these journeys, and ‘Into the Amazon: an incredible story of survival in the jungle' was published in 2011.

The film ‘John Harrison Explorer’ was made for the ‘Voyager’ series by National Geographic in 1991, about a canoe journey on the Rio Ximim-Ximim in Brazil.

John has written and presented several radio programmes for the BBC, and contributed articles to many magazines and newspapers.

He has entertained audiences with more than 200 lectures over the last 25 years, including four talks at the Royal Geographical Society in London, (where he has also chaired three seminars on tropical forest expedition logistics), plus motivational seminars and visits to schools and Luncheon Clubs. He has also been an on-board speaker for the Cunard, Silversea, Seabourn, Holland America and Fred Olsen cruise lines.

He lives in Bristol in the UK with his wife and two children, where he has his own construction company.