Guy Grieve's Biography

Guy Grieve was born in Southern Africa in 1973.

Grieve, who was half Scottish, settled in Scotland. In July 2004 he gave up his job at The Scotsman, and, leaving behind his wife and two sons for the duration, went to spend a year alone in the Alaskan wilderness, which led to his book, Call Of The Wild.

Grieve had met his wife-to-be Juliet Knight nine years before his Alaska trip when they were both visiting their parents in Mull. They married in 2002.

Guy Grieve had a job in sales and marketing at The Scotsman newspaper, which he resigned from when he went to Alaska, although he sent The Scotsman reports of his Alaskan adventure.

In the sub-arctic wilderness of Alaska, Guy Grieve built a log cabin 300 miles from the nearest road. He encountered temperatures that fell below -60°C.

In 2007, he went on another adventure, albeit in a more temperate and populated environment. Together with Tommi Miers, Guy Grieve appears in Channel 4's The Wild Gourmets, travelling from Land's End to John O'Groats without spending money but living off the land.

Guy Grieve and Thomasina Miers's Channel 4 series, The Wild Gourmets, has a book tie-in that details how they trap, shoot, and scavenge for food.

Since Call of the Wild, he has lived with his family in the Hebrides.

Asked by Metro what he got out of his experience in Alaska, Grieve commented that before his adventure:

"I was trapped by fear, doing what society expected me to do. The result was debt and hardly getting to see my family. I took a terrible risk but, for myself and my family, we’ve discovered a free way of life. There are so many different ways of living and I was determined to help my sons explore other paths. We’ve escaped the money-driven world."

In March 2008, Guy Grieve and Thomasina Miers hooked up again to present A Cook's Tour of Spain on Channel 4.

In October 2008, he hosted the Channel Five documentary Climbing the Giants, in which he visited Victoria in Australia to examine a natural environment that was at risk.

In June 2009, Guy Grieve made a documentary about Gabon, entitled Living with Monkeys: Tales from the Treetops, broadcast on BBC1.

In April 2010, Guy and his then wife Juliet set up The Ethical Shellfish company a fishing business based around diving for Scallops. Although now divorced Juliet and Guy work on happily as business partners. Guy said recently; 'We got divorced at a cost of £120.00. No lawyers were involved or needed as our friendship was simply too strong. We stopped a passer-by in Edinburgh and they signed our Separation agreement!"