Dan Snow – Favourite Things
Each week Reaction Weekend brings you Favourite Things – interviews with interesting people about the skills, hobbies, pleasures and past times that make them who they are.
Dan Snow MBE is a historian, television presenter and author. Since 2003, he has been making history programmes for the BBC including a four part series on the rise of the British Royal Navy, 16 episodes of Battlefield Britain, with his father Peter Snow, a feature length documentary on the Battle of the Ancre in 1916 and a month long expedition down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. He also has a regular history slot on BBC1’s One Show. Snow runs the History Hit Network, an online subscription based streaming service devoted to History documentaries and hosts the History Hit podcast.
These are a few of his favourite things…
Sailing
I love being on the water. It’s the most wonderful feeling, you press along with the wind and see the world at the pace at which it is meant to be seen. You travel as our ancestors did, up rivers, along seas and oceans; you harness elemental forces of nature unlike motoring or flying a plane where you just crash through it with all the horsepower of an artificial engine. It is a wonderful thing. I love getting out on any boat, from an almost-windsurfer up to a lovely tall ship, they all have their own charm and character. I have sailed across the Atlantic and as everybody who sails across the Atlantic always says, you spend the first few days saying “How are we doing? Are we getting towards the Caribbean?” But by the time you sight the Caribbean, you’re sad it didn’t go on for longer.
History
It’s a bit boring to choose what you do for a living but I do love telling history stories on camera. And I am incredibly lucky that it is what I do for a living, because I loved it from the first day I ever did it back in 2002. I think lots of actors, comedians and television personalities develop a shtick and then fall out of love with it, but have to keep doing it because it pays the mortgage. I feel incredibly grateful that I still absolutely love the artistry of trying to find the words to describe the past and marrying it to imagery. I went out with my team yesterday, kayaking around the Solent looking at Henry VIII’s castles, telling the story of how they were built, how they were paid for and what happened to them – and I couldn’t believe my luck. I enjoyed it as much yesterday as the first day I ever did it.
Hiking
I love hiking. It’s the best way to see the world. It is good for the body, soul, mind and creativity – I have lots of ideas when I’m hiking. You can do it anywhere too; through cities and countryside, along seashores and canals, even on the side of roads. The joy of the internet and the iPhone is that you don’t get lost either. When I was in Hong Kong once for work, I went for these really long walks around and, in the old days, that would have been terrifying! You’d get lost and then have all these language barriers when asking for help. Now you just check on a map and can always call an Uber.
Trees
As I get older, I am becoming obsessed with trees. I plant trees as often as I can and take great pride in it. Something sad happened this month, my kids and I grew acorns into little oak trees of around 5 or 6 inches high in the kitchen, then we put them in the greenhouse and then they got hammered by mice. Every single one killed. Poor little things. I live in the New Forest and the good thing about having kids is you get to climb trees again, my daughter is a massive climber so I find myself hanging off of trees a lot.
Travel
I love to travel. I think we took it for granted and everyone started doing it, then it became sort-of unfashionable because we were worried about our carbon footprint. But I absolutely adore that moment where (ideally) you arrive by boat, touch land and the smells of the place rush in. I landed in Mali a couple of years ago and you could immediately smell the warm, rich sediment from the river in Bamako. I love that moment when the door opens and you know you couldn’t be anywhere else in the world; you are definitely in Sub-Saharan Africa. I love the adventure, whether it is landing in the Niger river or embracing the cold air of the mountains in the alps. It’s such a privilege to be able to afford travel, eat the food and walk the streets of different cities and countries. I really miss that.