Alan Whicker is the highly regarded UK journalist and broadcaster who has been delivering reports from across the world for the last 50 years. We at PureTravel admire the travel pioneer and wanted to share his story with you.
Alan Whicker may be 85 but he shows no signs of slowing down yet, with a new TV show recently recorded for the BBC, Alan Whicker’s Journey Of A Lifetime. He is also vocal about the new crop of travel documentary presenters and has commented in the past about the ‘mandatory blondes’ that front travel shows and has even rejected a travel show on the grounds of the show was ‘dumbing down’.
Whicker was born in Cairo, Egypt and his father died when he was just three years old and he attended school in Hertfordshire, England. He then went to war, and went through officer selection aged just 16 and from there got into journalism. His passion for the city of Venice, Italy came when he ran a Forces newspaper there for the Eighth Army and lived in Venice for a year.
He is an intensely private person and Whicker rarely reveals any personal details. He has been with his partner, Valerie Kleeman, since 1969 and she is 20 years younger than him. They have never felt the need to marry and have never had children.
Valerie and Whicker live on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, off the northern coast of France, in a pink sandstone house, which has amazing sea views and is decorated in 1970s inspired opulence. Alan Whicker’s pride and joy is his 1964 Bentley S3 which sits on the drive.
Whicker has met so many people from all walks of life and is about to publish his fourth autobiography. He has traveled all over world and was in fact reported killed in 1950 after a tour in Japan to broadcast on the Korean War. He has said that the country he most regrets not visiting is Kashmir.
