Bear Grylls

Edward Michael Grylls, known as Bear, served as a trooper with 21 SAS in the Territorial Army from 1994 to 1997, and broke three vertebrae in 1996 when a parachute failed over Zambia. He reached the summit of Everest on 16 May 1998, aged 23. Television came after that: Born Survivor, shown in the United States as Man vs. Wild, ran from 2006 to 2011, and Running Wild from 2014 to 2023. The Scout Association made him Chief Scout in 2009, at 35 the youngest to hold the post, and he stayed in it until September 2024. You Vs the World: The Bear Grylls Guide to Never Giving Up, which DK brought out in 2023 for readers of roughly eight to twelve, retells his expeditions in a form pitched at children and turns each of them into a point about nerve, persistence and getting going again after something fails.