Filmed on the location of the BBC’s, ‘Victorian Farm’ at Acton Scott in Shropshire, Escape In Time followed the experience of 8 families as they became Victorian Farmers for a week. The twenty part series follows the families and a team of historians and experts as they experience life on the Victorian Farm. Due to air in 2010.

‘It was an enormously humbling experience to meet real life heroes, men and women who have put their lives at risk in the line of duty’, ‘nothing I have ever done, or will ever do, will compare with the brave stoicism of these young men and women’, ‘it was un utterly compeling, enlightening and inspiring visit’ Ben was a guest of the British Forces Foundation and he hopes to visit the sister site in Selly Oak, Birmingham in the New Year.

About SSAFA

The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen & Families Association (SSAFA) Forces Help provides practical assistance and emotional support to troops and their families as they come to terms with serious and life-changing injuries. The charity offers life-long support to servicemen and women past and present.

www.ssafa.org.uk

• Castle doors open: 6.30pm
• Talk starts: 7pm
• Followed by a Q&A and signing
• Licensed bar

For more information visit www.weld-hospice.org.uk

60th anniversary, 10 days, 10 guest directors, over 440 events.
The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, 9-18 October 2009.

The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival returns from 9-18 October in a ten day 60th anniversary celebration. With its signature blend of award-winning writers, world-renowned thinkers and international star names the Festival has come a long way since its 9 events in 1949 - now attracting over 100,000 visitors to hundreds of events every year. At its heart the festival still rejoices in the joy of books, the thrill of debate and the unique interaction between writer and reader.

This year’s programme looks back over the last 60 years and questions what the future might bring: 10 Guest Directors will lead this exploration, with each programming a very special day of events. Poet Simon Armitage takes to the helm on the opening Friday, followed by theatre and film director Richard Eyre, national treasure Sandi Toksvig, prize-winning novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, scientist and broadcaster Alice Roberts, celebrated Brick Lane author Monica Ali, frontline foreign correspondent Rageh Omaar, bestselling children’s writer and Alex Rider creator Anthony Horowitz, comedian Mark Watson and acclaimed novelist Jonathan Coe.

Guest names include David Mitchell and Robert Webb, Judi Dench, Sebastian Faulks, Stephen Fry, Michael Palin, Audrey Niffenegger, Jack Dee, Jo Brand, Richard Eyre, Justin Lee Collins, Alan Davies, Rich Hall, Al Murray, The Now Show, David Walliams, Julia Donaldson, Michael Rosen, James Martin, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, James Cracknell and Ben Fogle.

For more information visit the Cheltenham Literature Festival web site.

For bookings contact the Box Office: 0844 576 7979

Available to buy at Amazon.co.uk

Thursday 8 October 2009
Stamford Arts Centre
27 St Mary’s Street, Stamford, Lincs, PE9 2DL
www.stamfordartscentre.com

Thursday 15 October 2009
The Brewhouse Theatre
Coal Orchard, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 1JL
www.thebrewhouse.net

Friday 16 October 2009
Theatr Brycheiniog
Canal Wharf, Brecon, LD3 7EW
www.theatrbrycheiniog.co.uk

Sunday 18 October 2009
Theatre by the Lake
Lakeside, Keswick, CA12 5DJ
www.theatrebythelake.co.uk

Tuesday 20 October 2009 
Darlington Arts Centre
Vane Terrace, Darlington, DL3 7AX
www.darlington.gov.uk/Culture/arts/

Tuesday 27 October 2009
Turner Sims Concert Hall
Highfield Road, Southampton, SO 17 1BJ
www.turnersims.co.uk

• 27th May - Hay on Wye Festival
• 7th June - Cheltenham Science Festival
• 8th June - Oxford Union
• 9th October - Cheltenham Literary Festival

Ben will also be speaking as part of the Royal Geographical Society regional tour:

• 7th October - King’s Lynn, Norfolk
• 8th October - Stamford, Lincolnshire
• 15th October - Taunton, Somerset
• 16th October - Brecon, Wales
• 18th October - Keswick, Lake District
• 20th October - Darlington
• 27th October - Southampton

Ben has finished treatment for Leishmaniasis and has been given the all clear by a number of doctors to head south to Antarctica with Team Qinetiq. The team leave Cape Town for Novo in mid December and the race will begin at the end of the month. You can follow all the action on the teams website www.teamqinetiq.com and the boys will also send weekly dispatches back to the Weekend section of the Daily Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk every Saturday. A BBC team, led by Alexis Giradet and Camerman Keith Schofield will also be on the snow filming all the excitement for the series, On Thin Ice which will be broadcast in the new year.

Ben would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The third part of the hit series will be on BBC 2 at 18.30 every evening from 1st January 2009. The series involves a journey from the Equator in Ecaudor to the Tropic of Capricorn in Chile. Ben helps teams of unsung hero’s , from Fireman and doctors to Paralympic athletes and Naval Officers, across some of the world’s toughest environments

Ben Fogle has started treatment for Leishmaniasis Vianna, a rather unpleasant skin eating parasite passed by the bite of a sand fly. Ben contracted the parasite while filming in Peru.

Ben currently has a deep lesion an inch in diameter on his arm however Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis produces destructive and disfiguring lesions of the face and left untreated can lead to death.

Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis is treated with a thirty day course of toxic pentavalent antimonials in high dose administered daily by IV infusion. As pentavalent is toxic and classified as a ‘poison’ side effects included aching, arthralgia, fatigue, gastrointestinal upset, elevation of amylase, lipase, and liver enzyme levels, leukopenia, anemia, and electrocardiographic abnormalities. The treatment can be traumatic to the patient, and many are hospitalised for the duration.

Ben is responding well to the course of medication which he is receiving daily by a team of experts at the University College Hospital.

Ben’s health is being monitored closely by a team of doctors and is undergoing a full medical, incluiding ECG’s and blood tests every other day.

‘I am feeling frustrated, but reassured that I am in expert hands, which is more than can be said for the 12 million people who also suffer leishmania in South America and Africa each year, many of whom sadly die’.

‘While the treatment is unpleasant, I am reassured that it has a high success rate and would like to thank all the NHS staff at UCH for their kind, professional care and help especially in these first few difficult days of treatment’.

‘I would like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and reassure everyone that apart from the rather large hole in one arm and the canula in the other, I am feeling optimistic and looking forward to the completion of the course and heading to Antarctica which I am relieved to say has no skin eating parasites’.

BBC 2 are making a six part documentary following Team Qinetiq in their epic race across Antarctica to the South Pole. Film crews have been following the pair for over a year as they prepare for the toughest challenge of their lives and follow the pair as they train in Norway, Austria, and LA. The series will be shown in the new year.

Ben and James Cracknell have selected their third team member to join them in the Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race 2008. Ed Coats, a Bristol based doctor will join them on the 470 nautical mile race across Antarctica in December. You can follow all their trials and tribulations at www.teamqinetiq.com.

Follow Ben’s progress here…