Paul Heiney is a well respected, versatile and experienced broadcaster and writer, who for over 30 years has appeared on all Britain's major television and radio networks. In recent years, his speciality has been consumer affairs and rural issues.
Paul regularly hosts corporate events and gives informative and entertaining keynote speeches.
He is currently presenting ITV 1's successful prime time series Countrywise, travelling to all parts of rural Britain to meet the people and hear their tales. For seven years he was a presenter/reporter on the BBC 1 top-rated consumer show, Watchdog and is well remembered for That's Life in the early 80's which led to a long string of successful shows including In at the Deep End (BBC1), This Sunday (ITV), Food and Drink (BBC2), Lion Country (BBC 1), Crossing Rome (ITV) as well as many series on rural affairs for ITV Anglia.
On radio Paul has presented programmes including for BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Today, Home Truths and On Your Farm.
But his life has not been entirely taken over by journalism and broadcasting. Paul Heiney is an ocean adventurer. In 2005, he fulfilled a longstanding ambition to sail the Atlantic singlehanded in the wake of the solo sailing pioneers, which led to his book 'The Last Man across the Atlantic'.
He sailed his own boat, the size of an average family cruiser, single-handedly to the Azores in the Azores and Back Race, then used that experience to undertake the OSTAR, the world famous singlehanded race across the north Atlantic first won by Francis Chichester and described by Ellen MacArthur and others as 'the yachtsman's Everest'.
Paul has now set sail on an even greater adventure and is heading south, alone for some of the time, through the tropics towards the south Atlantic in order the circumnavigate the treacherous waters to be found in the most remote part of the world, and to round Cape Horn.
A natural story teller, Paul has over a dozen books to his credit, both fiction and non-fiction and is a widely read author. He has written on rural, maritime and farming matters, and more recently on popular science. He has also found time to be a pioneer organic farmer when, in 1990, he decided to master the skills of traditional farming using Suffolk Punch horses instead of tractors, farming 40 acres of Suffolk countryside. This experience inspired not only his hugely successful column, Farmer's Diary, which appeared weekly in The Times for seven years, but also a number of books.
Paul lives with his wife Libby Purves, in Suffolk.