Douglas Scott Botting was an English explorer, author, biographer and TV presenter and producer.
11 Facts About Douglas Botting
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Douglas Botting wrote biographies of naturalists Gavin Maxwell and Gerald Durrell.
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Douglas Botting featured in much other BBC programming, including Under London Expedition exploring the London sewerage system, as part of the BBC2 nature series The World About Us.
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Douglas Botting wrote numerous Second World War and early aviation books for Time Life Books.
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Douglas Botting took part, with Anthony Smith, in the first balloon flight over Africa.
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Douglas Botting was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey; he lived in and went to school in Worcester Park.
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Douglas Botting got an early flavour of travel when he served as an infantry subaltern for the King's African Rifles in Kenya, as part of his National Service.
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Douglas Botting went on to study English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, during which time he undertook a pioneering exploration of the little-known island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean.
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Douglas Botting's first book, Island of the Dragon's Blood, is an account of this trip.
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Douglas Botting went on to make documentary films for organisations including National Geographic, the BBC, Time Life and the Royal Geographical Society.
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Douglas Botting undertook a systematic explorations of Socotra while at university, and was part of the world's first balloon journey over Africa, the first British balloon journey across the High Alps, and the first vessel ever to voyage by inland waterways from the Amazon to the Caribbean via the unexplored rain forests of the Casiquiare and Orinoco.