"'An observer of great wisdom and learning...' (Simon Winchester) 'One reads him for literary delight and for the pleasure of meeting an Elizabethan spirit allied to a modern mind.... but he is also an observer of penetrating intellect.' (Vita Sackville-West, Spectator)"

Peter Fleming, OBE, (1907-1971) was a journalist and writer and one of the great travel writers of the twentieth century. He began his career as a special correspondent with The Times and later wrote for The Spectator. He served with the Grenadier Guards during the Second World War and from 1942 was in charge of military deception operations in Southeast Asia. He is author of several classic books, which include Brazilian Adventure, To Peking (The Peter Fleming Collection, Tauris Parke Paperbacks), One's Company and News from Tartary. Later he wrote accounts of historical events in lands through which he had travelled, namely The Siege at Peking, Bayonets to Lhasa and The Fate of Admiral Kolchak. In his memory, The Royal Geographical Society established The Peter Fleming Award for projects that seek to advance geographical science.