Ted Simon Audiobooks

Jupiter's Travels: two wheels, one rider, and the road that shaped travel writing

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Who is Ted Simon?

Ted Simon, born in 1931, is a British travel writer with one of the great calling cards in the genre: he has ridden a motorcycle around the world not once but twice. Raised in London by a German mother and a Romanian father, he came to travel writing with an ear already tuned to more than one culture – useful equipment for a man planning to meet all of them.

That double circumnavigation is the foundation of his reputation. Plenty of writers have travelled far; very few have done it alone on two wheels, twice, and fewer still have written about it in a way that keeps readers coming back decades on.

Ted Simon in audiobooks

Jupiter’s Travels, Simon’s title in our catalogue, is his account of taking on the world on two wheels, and it is a natural audiobook: a long road, one rider, and the world arriving mile by mile. The format suits the material perfectly – many listeners will hear it exactly where it belongs, in transit.

UK listeners should expect more than an adventure log. The appeal of Simon’s writing is the reflection between the miles: what long, solitary travel does to a person, and what the road teaches that the destination cannot. It has earned its place as a touchstone for anyone who has ever looked at a motorcycle and thought about the horizon.