Michael Palin CBE
Michael Palin was born in Sheffield in 1943. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and then Brasenose College, Oxford where he read Modern History.
In 1969 Monty Python’s Flying Circus established Michael’s comic reputation along with those of his five collaborators Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Terry Jones. This team made forty-five Python television episodes and their feature films included Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Monty Python’s Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.
Among Michael’s other film credits are Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, The Missionary, American Friends, A Private Function and A Fish Called Wanda, which won him a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1988.
Michael contributed to two BBC series of Great Railway Journeys of the World, in 1980 and 1994. He also wrote and presented seven award-winning television travel series for the BBC - Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Full Circle, Hemingway Adventure, Sahara, Himalaya and New Europe, all of which were accompanied by best-selling books.
He was made a CBE in the 2000 New Year’s Honours List. In 2002, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Comedy Awards and was given a BAFTA Special Award in 2005.
Michael has been a Fellow of the Society since 1978 and supported expeditions and fieldwork for young people through his Gumby Awards.
He has honorary degrees from the Universities of Sheffield, Belfast and Edinburgh, and is an Honorary Fellow of SOAS and Brasenose College, Oxford. He won the Society's Ness Award in 1998, and was awarded the Livingstone Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 2008.
Michael is a passionate advocate for geography and has worked with the Society on several occasions in recent years to champion the subject.
“Geography is an almost limitless subject for me. It covers so much of what shapes our lives today - where we live, how we live, and most importantly how we shall live in the future. It is a dynamic subject, constantly changing and evolving as fresh evidence is assembled and assessed. As I travel the world I find myself asking questions that only geographers can answer, and I feel I owe a great debt to all those who've taught me to appreciate what geography has become for me, a sense of wonder fused with the hard truths of science.”